MbaMission Northwestern Kellogg Insider's Guide 2018-2019

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com
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presents
mbaMission’s Insider’s Guide

Kellogg School of
Management
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
2018–2019
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mbaMission Insider’s Guide: Kellogg School of Management · 2018–2019
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Introduction
After more than a decade helping MBA applicants get Over the past eight years, Poets&Quants has be-
into top business schools, we have learned what can come the foremost authority on the top business
compel an admissions committee to send that cov- schools. Our mission has always been to help young
eted letter of acceptance. Selecting the right MBA professionals with one of the most important—and
program for your needs and developing a true un- potentially most expensive—decisions of their lives:
derstanding of and familiarity with that program are whether to pursue an MBA.
crucial in crafting a successful application. We have
therefore invested hundreds of hours into research- This Insider’s Guide is part of a new editorial part-
ing and examining the leading business schools—in- nership between Poets&Quants and mbaMission,
cluding speaking with students, alumni, and other the world’s leading MBA admissions consulting firm.
representatives—to construct these guides, with the We closely evaluated all such guides currently on the
express goal of helping applicants like you make in- market, and I am confident that you will not find a
formed decisions about this important step in your more thorough analysis of an MBA program than
education and career. mbaMission’s. These in-depth reports are well re-
searched and well written, offering the detail and
We hope you enjoy this guide and encourage you to examination applicants need to really understand
visit us at www.mbamission.com for complete and de- a school’s culture, offerings, and outcomes. We are
tailed analysis of the leading schools’ essay questions, thrilled to offer these guides to our readers for free,
weekly essay-writing tips, MBA news and trends, and thanks to our new partnership.
other valuable free information and resources. And
for any advice you may need on applying to business Moreover, the guides are a great complement to the
school, please contact us for a free 30-minute consul- daily coverage of MBA news, students, programs,
tation. Our consultants are extensively trained to help and admissions practices on PoetsandQuants.com.
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and compelling way and take advantage of every op- about the programs that interest you and the one you
portunity that might increase their chances of being ultimately attend. We will continue to provide the
admitted to their target MBA program. most relevant and current resources on the MBA world
to help you make the best possible decisions on your
Jeremy Shinewald path from school selection to career advancement.
info@mbamission.com
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Management of Business at the University of Michigan
• Insider’s Guide to Duke University’s Fuqua • Insider’s Guide to the Tuck School of Business
School of Business at Dartmouth
• Insider’s Guide to the Haas School of • Insider’s Guide to the UCLA Anderson School
Business at the University of California- of Management
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• Insider’s Guide to Harvard Business School Booth School of Business
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Management at Northwestern University • Insider’s Guide to the Wharton School of the
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Management • Insider’s Guide to the Yale School of
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Leonard N. Stern School of Business
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Interview Primers
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Table of Contents
9 The MBA Program in Context: Choosing Kellogg
10 Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town
13 Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger
17 Curriculum: Flexible Versus Mandatory Core
20 Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Method
22 Academic Specializations/Recruitment Focus: Resources and Employers
26 Alumni Base: Opportunities to Engage
28 Facilities: Shaping the Academic/Social Experience
29 Rankings and Reputation: Important Metrics or Arbitrary Measures?
35 Kellogg School of Management

35 Summary
36 The Dean
38 Professional Specializations
38 Consulting
39 Entrepreneurship, Private Equity, and Venture Capital
43 Finance
45 Health Care and Biotechnology
47 International Business
50 Marketing
53 Nonprofit/Social Entrepreneurship
55 Real Estate
57 Notable Professors and Unsung Heroes
58 Social/Community Life
60 Academic Summary
62 Admissions Basics
64 Northwestern University (Kellogg) Essay Analysis, 2017–2018
69 mbaMission’s Exclusive Interview with Melissa Rapp, Director of Admissions at Northwestern
University’s Kellogg School of Management
75 Insider Interview: First-Year Student, Northwestern Kellogg, Class of 2014
80 “What I Learned at … Kellogg”
83 Appendix: Kellogg Facts and Figures

83 Basics
83 Class Profile (Class of 2019)
84 Employment Statistics (Class of 2017)
90 Bibliography
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The MBA Program in Context:
Choosing Kellogg
Over the years, we have met many aspiring MBA students who have tried to You may not find a
identify their target schools and quickly become overwhelmed, wondering, single program that
“How are the top MBA programs really different?” and “How do I choose the meets all your needs
one that is right for me?” and preferences, but
you should be able to
Frustrated, some applicants ultimately choose schools based simply on identify ones that fulfill
rankings or the opinions of friends or alumni. Although these inputs have a the factors that are
place in your evaluative process, you should also do the necessary research most important to you.
to find the program that is truly best for your personality and professional
needs. In doing so, you will find significant differences between, for exam-
ple, programs that have a class size in the low 200s and those that have classes of more than 900 students. As you
are undoubtedly already aware, an MBA is a significant investment in the short term and a lifetime connection to
an institution in the long term. We therefore strongly encourage you to take time now to think long and hard about
this decision and thoroughly consider your options. We hope this guide will prove helpful to you in doing just that.
At mbaMission, we advise candidates evaluating their potential target schools to consider the following eight
specific characteristics (in no particular order) that shape MBA programs:
1. Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town
2. Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger
3. Curriculum: Flexible Versus Mandatory Core
4. Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Method
5. Academic Specializations/Recruitment Focus: Resources and Employers
6. Alumni Base: Opportunities to Engage
7. Facilities: Shaping the Academic/Social Experience
8. Rankings and Reputation: Important Metrics or Arbitrary Measures?
You will not likely find a single MBA program that meets all your needs and preferences across these eight criteria,
but you should be able to identify schools that fulfill the factors that are most important to you. Although this
guide is intended to familiarize you on a deeper level with this particular school, nothing will prove more valuable
in your decision making than visiting the programs that appeal to you and experiencing them firsthand. Inevitably,
no matter what your research may reveal, some schools will simply “click” with you, and others will not.
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Note: The authors and editors at mbaMission have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the
information included in this guide. However, some discrepancies may exist or develop over time between what is
presented here and what appears in the school’s official materials, as well as what may be offered by other content
providers in print or online. For the most up-to-date information, always check with your target school directly. The
opinions expressed by the people interviewed are those of the attributed individuals only and may not necessarily
represent the opinion of mbaMission or any of its affiliates.
We also wish to thank the students, alumni, faculty members, and administrators who gave generously of their time
to provide valuable input for this guide.
1. Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town
Pursuing an MBA can be quite intense, and the environment and community The environment
surrounding the campus can profoundly affect and even shape your MBA and community
experience. For example, imagine stepping out of a class at New York Univer- surrounding your
sity’s (NYU’s) Stern School of Business and into the energetic bustle of New chosen school can
York City’s West Village. Now imagine walking outside after a course at the profoundly affect and
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and being surrounded by the tranquil- shape your MBA
ity and natural beauty of New Hampshire’s Upper Valley. Neither scenario is experience.
necessarily “better” than the other, but one might appeal to you more.
An urban campus can undoubtedly offer social and cultural opportunities that a college town simply cannot match.
This is not to suggest, however, that college towns are devoid of culture—indeed, intense intellectual and cultural
programs exist in college towns precisely because the academic institution is at the core of the community.
While schools in college towns tout their close-knit atmosphere and the tight bonds classmates form in such a
setting, this environment can be welcoming for some students and overwhelming for others. In contrast, urban
campuses are more decentralized, with students often living in various parts of a city and even in the surrounding
suburbs. Someone who has a greater need for privacy or personal space might therefore prefer an urban environ-
ment. In addition, in major urban centers, some students—particularly those who lived in the city before enrolling
Urban Campus Schools Urban/College Hybrid Schools College Town Schools
Chicago Booth Northwestern Kellogg Cornell Johnson

Columbia Business School Stanford GSB Dartmouth Tuck
Harvard Business School UC Berkeley Haas Duke Fuqua
MIT Sloan UCLA Anderson Michigan Ross
NYU Stern Yale SOM UVA Darden
UPenn Wharton
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in business school—may already have well-developed social groups, and this scenario may again be better for
those who find an academically and socially all-encompassing environment less attractive.
One aspect of the MBA experience that candidates often fail to consider when evaluating their school options is
weather. Although factoring climate into your school choice may initially seem superficial, if you know you cannot
comfortably manage frigid conditions or soaring temperatures, certain programs should be stricken from your
list. We encounter many applicants each year who wisely stave off a potentially miserable experience by choosing
to not apply to certain schools in locations they just do not feel are “livable” for them.
In addition, housing costs are one expense that many applicants do not stop to consider before choosing a school
to target. By researching real estate prices at the top programs, we found that the cost differential between rent-
ing a one-bedroom apartment in a Midwestern college town and renting one in New York City, for example, can
be quite significant—adding up to tens of thousands of dollars on a cumulative basis across two years. This is an
important factor to include as you weigh your options and calculate your projected budget.
In summary, a college town can be appealing for some candidates because its smaller size tends to create strong
bonds within the business school’s community, though for others, the lack of privacy could be undesired or over-
whelming. Furthermore, some find a slower pace of life calming and comfortable, whereas others crave the energy
and bustle of a city. If you strongly prefer one or the other, you should be able to quickly eliminate certain schools
from your list.
Average Monthly Rent for a One-Bedroom Apartment
NYU Stern New York, NY $3,157 within .20 mile radius of campus
MIT Sloan Cambridge, MA $3,041 within .75 mile radius of campus
Harvard Business School Cambridge, MA $2,777 within .33 mile radius of campus
UCLA Anderson Los Angeles, CA $2,684 within .50 mile radius of campus
Stanford GSB Stanford, CA $2,577 within 1.50 mile radius of campus
UC Berkeley Haas Berkeley, CA $2,349 within .75 mile radius of campus
Columbia Business School New York, NY $2,134 within .50 mile radius of campus
UPenn Wharton Philadelphia, PA $1,396 within .75 mile radius of campus
Michigan Ross Ann Arbor, MI $1,292 within .50 mile radius of campus
Northwestern Kellogg Evanston, IL $1,291 within .75 mile radius of campus
Chicago Booth Chicago, IL $1,270 within 1.0 mile radius of campus
Yale SOM New Haven, CT $1,240 within .50 mile radius of campus
Dartmouth Tuck Hanover, NH $1,186 within 3.0 mile radius of campus
Duke Fuqua Durham, NC $1,140 within 1.5 mile radius of campus
Cornell Johnson Ithaca, NY $992 within .75 mile radius of campus
UVA Darden Charlottesville, VA $826 within 1.50 mile radius of campus
According to Rentometer.com, accessed May 2018.
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Chicago, Illinois, known as the “Second City” (a nickname established when the city was the second-most-
populous one in the country after New York City), boasts a population of 9.5 million in its greater metropol-
itan area. So, rather than discussing everything that a city the size of Chicago has to offer—and it indeed
offers plenty in the way of arts and entertainment (several major sports teams, the world-renowned Art
Institute of Chicago, and a stunning array of architectural styles amid hundreds of towering skyscrapers,
just to scratch the surface)—we will focus on the bordering suburban city in which students at Northwest-
ern University’s Kellogg School of Management study and live: Evanston.
In some ways, Evanston offers a hybrid of city and campus life, given that it is a college town, hosting
Northwestern University, but one that in recent decades has been engulfed by the greater Chicago area, as
the city’s suburbs have sprawled north along Lake Michigan and well beyond Evanston. Indeed, Evanston
developed along the shores of Lake Michigan and today has six public beaches, which are open from May
to September. A Kellogg alumna described Evanston to mbaMission as “Connected to Chicago, but still its
own little town, with one or two of everything that you need—cafés, movie theaters, grocery stores. It even
has a Whole Foods!”
Kellogg students generally live in several apartment buildings near campus, which are 5–15 minutes from
the school by foot. Evanston Place, The Park Evanston, and The Reserve at Evanston are considered the
more “luxurious” apartments, offering such amenities as doormen, fitness centers, and pools. Rents
in these buildings can range from approximately $1,600 to nearly $3,000 per month for a one-bedroom
apartment. Meanwhile, the older 1500 Chicago Ave building is considered nice but is not as expensive,
with a one-bedroom apartment costing between $1,450 and $1,525 per month, and is the furthest from
campus. Some students, particularly internationals, choose to live in McManus Living and Learning Center,
a university-owned building on campus that offers several sizes of fully furnished suites. One-bedroom
apartments in McManus rent from nearly $5,000 to more than $5,800 per quarter (fall, winter, and spring).
Because students tend to live around the Kellogg grounds, few take their cars to school. Many walk, and
commuting is reportedly not an issue. Incoming students looking for housing can take advantage of a self-
guided housing tour offered during admitted student weekend (Day at Kellogg).
Evanston has a few bar and dining options—including Pete Miller’s (which is rather upscale), Bar Louie, and
Prairie Moon—and all are frequented by Kellogg students, who, according to an alumna we interviewed,
tend to make the bar rounds in a single evening, progressing from one to the other.
The city of Chicago is a 25-minute cab or train ride away. Students with whom we spoke reported travel-
ing to Chicago anywhere from once a week to once every two weeks. Almost all Kellogg students live in
Evanston and tend to like the town, so many “choose to ‘live’ Evanston,” as one second-year student told us.
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2. Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger
Another element that affects the character of a school’s MBA experience is class size. You might want to reflect on
your high school, college, and work environments to help you determine whether you would be more comfortable
in a larger class or a smaller one—or whether this is even a consideration for you at all.
Students at smaller schools (which we define as having approximately 350 Reflect on your past
students or fewer per class) tend to interact with most of their peers and academic and work
professors at some point during the typical two-year MBA period. Thus, the environments to
smaller schools are generally considered more “knowable,” and their com- determine whether
munities tend to be quite closely knit. Also, consider that assuming a leader- you would be more
ship position is easier in a smaller environment, because, for example, the comfortable in a larger
Finance Club may have only one president at both a small school and a large or smaller class—or
school, but competition for such a position would obviously be greater in the whether this is a
larger program. consideration for you
at all.
Some individuals might prefer to be at a larger school where they can better
maintain their anonymity if they so choose. A student at a school with close
to 900 people or more in each class will not likely get to know each and every one of his/her classmates by the
end of the program, and some people might prefer this. Further, advocates of larger classes tout the advantage of
being able to interact with more people during one’s

Class Size MBA experience—and to thereby develop a broader
900 to 1,000 Harvard Business School and more robust network of peers. Note that many
800 to 900 UPenn Wharton schools divide students into smaller groups—called
700 to 800 Columbia Business School 1 “sections,” “clusters,” “cohorts,” or even “oceans”—
500 to 600 Chicago Booth in which approximately 60–90 students take certain
400 to 500 Northwestern Kellogg classes together, and this approach can help foster
Duke Fuqua a stronger sense of community within the larger pro-
Michigan Ross
grams.
Stanford GSB
MIT Sloan
300 to 400 NYU Stern Although for many years Kellogg’s incoming class
UCLA Anderson
size numbered approximately 530, that number has
Yale SOM
UVA Darden been below 500 since the fall of 2011 (Class of 2013)—
200 to 300 Dartmouth Tuck thereby classifying the program as a medium-sized

UC Berkeley Haas one. However, a significantly greater number of stu-
Cornell Johnson
dents graduate each year than enrolled two years
Schools are listed in order from largest class to smallest within earlier (e.g., 678 graduated in 2017). How is this pos-
each category. sible? Beyond its traditional two-year program, Kel-

1
Includes J-Term students.
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School (Class of 2019) Women International Minorities
Chicago Booth 40% 36% 27%1
Columbia Business School 41% 43% 34%1
Cornell Johnson 31% 33% 31%1
Dartmouth Tuck 44% 29% 23%1
Duke Fuqua2 35% 39% 20%
Harvard Business School 42% 35%3 25%1,3
Michigan Ross 43% 34% 23%
MIT Sloan 42% 33% NA
Northwestern Kellogg 42% 35% 25%1
NYU Stern 38% 37%4 29%
Stanford GSB 40% 41% 3,4

29%1
UC Berkeley Haas 40% 39% 29%1
UCLA Anderson 38% 30% 28%
UPenn Wharton 44% 33% 33%1
UVA Darden 39% 34% 20%1
Yale SOM 43% 45%3,4 27%1,3

1
Specified as U.S. minorities.
2
Fuqua offers statistics on its website to represent a “typical” class.
3
Includes permanent U.S. residents.
4
Includes dual citizens.
logg offers a one-year accelerated MBA program, which has grown gradually from approximately 80 stu-
dents each year to 132 students within the Class of 2017.
In February 2012, then Kellogg Dean Sally Blount announced that the school would be making significant
changes as part of its strategic plan, called Envision Kellogg (see the Summary section for more details). A
Bloomberg Businessweek article that same month noted that the key changes would pertain to class size,
explaining that over the course of several years, the size of the full-time MBA program’s class would de-
crease by as much as 25%, whereas that of the one-year program would double or even triple. Dean Blount
noted in a May 2013 Bloomberg Businessweek interview that the strategic initiative to modify the class siz-
es was already showing operating results, saying, “It’s evolutionary change; it’s not revolutionary change.”
Another change proposed in 2012 was an overhaul of the Kellogg curriculum, the program’s first since 2003.
After completing a major curriculum review in 2013, the school decided to increase its elective offerings,
integrate a cross-disciplinary emphasis in its core courses, and expand its international scope, thus reflect-
ing a concerted effort to compete with new global models of business education. As Blount told Bloomberg
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Most Common Undergraduate Major for Incoming Students (Class of 2019)
Chicago Booth Business 27%
Columbia Business School Tied: Business, Social Science 32%
Cornell Johnson Business 34%
Dartmouth Tuck Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences 55%
Duke Fuqua NA NA
Harvard Business School Economics/Business 45%
Michigan Ross Economics/Business 36%
MIT Sloan Engineering 32%
Northwestern Kellogg Economics/Business 49%
NYU Stern Business 36%
Stanford GSB Humanities/Social Sciences 44%
UC Berkeley Haas Business 21%
UCLA Anderson Business 27%
UPenn Wharton Humanities 41%
UVA Darden NA NA
Yale SOM Humanities and Social Sciences 30%
Businessweek, “Demand for the two-year MBA is slowing. One-year and alternative master’s degrees are a
reality. … The world has changed, and we’re never going back. Our goal is to truly internalize that.”
Students in the one-year program, known as 1Y students, typically arrive at Kellogg with profound man-
agement education/business experience and intend to return to their respective professional fields im-
mediately upon graduation. Although these students join the program “late” (they have a summer session
and then take the same elective curriculum as the full-time students in their second year), both two-year
and accelerated-program students say that all Kellogg students are integrated together seamlessly in the
second year of the program.
Evening and weekend MBA students—approximately 1,100 are active at any given time—can also be found
in the Kellogg classroom. However, part-time students typically take courses at the downtown Chicago
campus. The Evanston campus, on the other hand, is almost exclusively the domain of the full-time MBAs.
Cash Cows, Moose, Jive Turkeys, Bucketheads, Highlanders, Bullfrogs, Big Dogs, and Poets—what do these
seemingly random terms have in common? They are all names of Kellogg sections. Each year, Kellogg’s en-
tire incoming class is divided into sections of approximately 60–70 students each, with an additional sec-
tion—the Roadrunners—comprising 1Y students. The students meet and bond with others in their assigned
section during the Complete Immersion in Management (CIM) program, a two-week orientation period that
takes place just before the full-time curriculum begins. During CIM, students take a full-credit “Leader-
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Year-Over-Year Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class
Class Profile Data: of of of of of of of of of
Northwestern 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011
Kellogg
Total Number of NA NA NA NA 5,564 5,071 5,461 5,826 5,795

Applicants1
Class Size (Two- 478 474 492 483 465 477 484 530 526
Year MBA)
Average GMAT 732 728 724 717 715 708 708 714 708
GMAT Range2 600– 690– 690– NA NA 700– 650– 660– 650–

780 760 760 740 740 750 740
Work Experience 3.5–7 3.5–7 3–7 2–12.5 2–12 3–7 3–7 3–7 3–7
Range (Middle
80%)
Average Age3 28 28 28 28 28 25–31 25–30 25–31 25–31
Female 42% 41% 43% 37% 36% 35% 33% 31% 33%
Representation
U.S. Minority 25% 26% 23% 26% 20% 20% 22% 23% 21%
Representation4
International 35% 35% 40% 36% 36% 39% 36% 33% 35%
Representation5
1 Includes one-year MBA and MMM program applicants.
2 Until 2017, figures represent the middle 51%; the 2018 figure is middle 80%.
3 Previous to the Class of 2015, figures represent age range.
4 Includes all non-white U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
5 Excludes U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
ship and Crisis Management” class (including a final), meet the school’s career services team, listen to the
wisdom of second-year students, play team-building games, memorize each other’s names, and socialize.
Because of the school’s collaborative nature and the grouping of each class into first-year sections, stu-
dents interact constantly, leading one alumnus to tell mbaMission, “I felt that the community was entirely
knowable.” Sections start as social vehicles and ultimately facilitate academic interaction. During the fall
term, sections take their core strategy class (“Business Strategy”) together. A first-year student we inter-
viewed reported having been very impressed with this course, stating, “Even though it’s a core class, it was
the right mixture of case work, lecture, and discussion that I felt engaged in every class session.”
In the remaining classes, which run concurrently, students are still engaged in the core curriculum, and
the sections remain primarily intact, though students have some flexibility in choosing the times of their
core courses and even have some optionality in terms of which courses they take (students can sometimes
waive certain classes in subject areas in which they have proven skills). The sections tend to slowly dis-
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band as the first year progresses, but students report that they continue to feel connected to their section
mates throughout their time at Kellogg.
Although Kellogg is a midsized program, it certainly appears to exhibit the kind of tight-knit community
that is typically associated with smaller, more isolated programs. Starting with section bonding and con-
tinuing through the numerous group exercises on which students collaborate, Kellogg appears to offer a
remarkably interactive environment both socially and academically. In fact, students’ time at the school
is so socially dynamic that one second-year student commented to mbaMission, “The only people I can
see hating the Kellogg experience are those who just don’t enjoy being around people, because they are
around all the time.”
Similarly, when we asked a first year what advice she would offer a candidate applying to the school, she
said, “Come to Kellogg because you want to be an active participant in the Kellogg community. Embrace the
culture and think about how you would fit into its diversity and improve upon it.” She went on to explain
the high level of involvement students have in all aspects of the MBA program: “Kellogg students are in
control of their own experience. All of our clubs, conferences, international classes, recruiting, etc. are ei-
ther completely run by students or have heavy influence from students. If we want change, we help create
it and see an impact immediately.”
In an interview with mbaMission, a recently admitted student described his experience at Day at Kellogg
(DAK) by saying, “At a school like Northwestern, you have this wonderful group of people who have dis-
tinguished themselves in their careers and as leaders, many of whom will be running the corporations of
tomorrow—but there is no mistaking that this is college living.”
This incoming student added, “It’s widely expressed that so much of the value in an MBA is in the network.
I’ve always understood the logic behind that point, but I always honestly had trouble using it as a selection
criteria. It’s hard to think of shelling out business school tuition and two years of your life in the hopes that
you’ll ‘hit it off at the bar’ with someone who can put in a good word for you at your dream firm. It always
seemed to me like rolling the dice in a very high-stakes game. After DAK, my feelings changed. I was pre-
sented with a career networking opportunity in a target industry my very first day on campus, and I had
the chance to play the other side of the coin—the role of advisor—to a group of students looking to break
into a new industry. I know that career networking works, because I experienced it. The other schools I’ve
visited have all been great, but I haven’t made connections like this anywhere else.”
3. Curriculum: Flexible Versus Mandatory Core
Many business schools have a “core” curriculum—a standard series of courses that all students must take. How-
ever, these core requirements can vary tremendously from one program to the next. For example, one school may
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teach its required curriculum for the entire first year, meaning that students The rigidity or
will not take any elective courses until their second year, whereas another flexibility of a school’s
MBA program may stipulate only one or two required courses. first-year curriculum
affects students’
The rigidity or flexibility of a school’s required curriculum affects students’ education and
education and socialization. Regardless of their professional experience, stu- socialization.
dents at a school with a rigid core curriculum must all take the same classes.
At some schools, for example, even CPAs must take the required foundational
accounting course, whereas at others, students can waive selected classes if they can prove a certain level of pro-
ficiency. Again, both approaches have pros and cons, and what those are depends on your perspective.
Proponents of a rigid core curriculum would argue that academics Average GMAT of Incoming Students
(Class of 2019)
understand what skills students need to become true managers
Chicago Booth 730
and that when students “overspecialize” in one area, their over-
Columbia Business School 724
all business education can ultimately suffer. A significant body of
academic writing has been devoted to critiquing programs that Cornell Johnson 700
give students a narrow view of business, notably Henry Mintz- Dartmouth Tuck 722
berg’s Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Duke Fuqua NA
Managing and Management Development (Berrett-Koehler, 2004) Harvard Business School1 730
and Rakesh Khurana’s From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The So- Michigan Ross 716
cial Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unful- MIT Sloan 722
filled Promise of Management as a Profession (Princeton Univer- Northwestern Kellogg 732
sity Press, 2007). NYU Stern 714
Stanford GSB 737

Advocates of the core curriculum approach would also argue UC Berkeley Haas 725
that having all students take the same classes creates a common
UCLA Anderson 716
language and discussion among the classmates because of the
UPenn Wharton 730
shared experience. In addition, proponents contend that a rigid
UVA Darden 713
core curriculum facilitates learning, because students who have
Yale SOM1 730
applicable direct experience bring that knowledge and insight
into the classroom and can thereby help teach others. Finally, 1
Represents median rather than average.
schools with mandatory cores generally keep students together
in their sections for several months, if not an entire academic year, and students who interact every day in this
way ultimately forge strong bonds. This sustained contact and connection can create a deep sense of community
among the students.
In contrast, those who would argue in favor of a more flexible curriculum feel that students benefit from the op-
portunity to specialize immediately—that time is short, and students need power and choice in preparing for their
desired careers. So if, for example, a student intended to enter the world of finance, an advocate of flexibility would
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argue that the student should Can Waive/ Cannot Waive/
be able to study finance in depth Test Out of Classes Test Out of Classes
throughout the MBA program, pos- Chicago Booth Harvard Business School
sibly even from day one, so as to Cornell Johnson MIT Sloan
Columbia Business School Stanford GSB
gain as much experience as possi- Dartmouth Tuck UVA Darden
ble in this area—especially before Duke Fuqua Yale SOM
Michigan Ross
interviewing for a summer intern-
Northwestern Kellogg
ship. Furthermore, proponents for NYU Stern
UC Berkeley Haas
flexible curricula caution that ex-
UCLA Anderson
perienced students could end up UPenn Wharton
“wasting” hours taking courses in
subjects in which they already have expertise. Finally, they would assert that a flexible schedule allows students
the opportunity to meet a greater number and wider variety of their classmates.
Kellogg offers a hybrid model with respect to the rigid/flexible curriculum options. Although the school
has a pretty comprehensive core, that core is not as extensive as it is at some schools, where the required
curriculum can sometimes consume students’ entire first year. Further, Kellogg allows for electives in the
first year, though typically not until the final term.
Kellogg operates on a three-term schedule—fall, winter, and spring—and each term is ten weeks long. In
addition, both the first and second years of the academic calendar begin with a two-week pre-term. During
the pre-term and the fall and winter terms of first year, students complete the bulk of the core curriculum.
Roughly one-half of the 20.5 credits required to graduate are contained within the core. Students are per-
mitted to waive up to seven of the core classes they have already taken at the undergraduate or graduate
level, and Kellogg has reported in the past that approximately 50% of students ultimately waive at least
one course. Still, those who have already studied a certain subject area and are able to waive a course do
not enjoy a “free pass”; instead, they are expected to take a more difficult course (i.e., a course more ad-
vanced than the basic core curriculum’s required course) in the same area.
The core courses at Kellogg are as follows:
“Accounting for Decision Making”
“Business Analytics I”
“Business Analytics II”
“Business Strategy”
“Finance I”
“Leadership in Organizations”
“Marketing Management”
“Microeconomic Analysis”
“Operations Management”
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Students take the core “Business Strategy” class, which cannot be waived, with their section in the fall
term. Thereafter, students have the flexibility to take the remainder of their core courses at any time of
day, and thus begin to mix with students from outside their section. Finally, in spring term of students’ first
year (the final term of that year), three of four courses are true electives, selected from outside the core.
During their second year, students can choose all their own courses except one: a pre-term, half-credit
class called “Leadership and Crisis Management” that all second-year students must complete.
A first year we interviewed did not feel that people outside the Kellogg community fully understood the
intensity of the school’s curriculum, remarking, “There’s a lot more quantitative rigor than we get credit
for.” And another first-year student admitted to us, “No matter how many people warned me, I didn’t be-
lieve how busy I would be. ‘Time flying by’ has a whole new meaning!” However, she quickly added, “It is a
busy that I enjoy.”
4. Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Method
Students will likely encounter multiple styles of learning while in business Students will
school—including participating in simulations, listening to guest speakers, encounter many
and partaking in hands-on projects—but the two most common MBA learn- different styles of
ing styles are case method and lecture. learning during their
time at business
Pioneered by HBS, the case method, or case-based learning, requires stu- school, but the two
dents to read the story (called a “case”) of either a hypothetical or a real most common are case
protagonist who is facing a managerial dilemma. As the student reads, he/ method and lecture.
she explores the protagonist’s dilemma and has access to various quantita-
tive and qualitative data points meant to facilitate further analysis. (Cases
can vary in length but are typically 10–20 pages long.) After reading and studying the entire case, the student
generally understands the profundity of the problem and is typically asked a simple question: “What would you
do?” In other words, how would the student act or react if he/she were in the protagonist’s place? What decision(s)
would the student make?
After completing his/her independent analysis of the case, the student typically meets with the members of his/
her study group or learning team (if the school in question assigns such teams) for further evaluation. Together,
the group/team members explore and critique one another’s ideas and help those students who may have had
difficulty understanding particular aspects of the issue or progressing as far on their own. Often, though not
always, the team will establish a consensus regarding the actions they would take in the protagonist’s place.
Then, in class, the professor acts as facilitator and manages a discussion of the case. Class discussions can often
become quite lively, and the professor will guide students toward resolving the dilemma. Sometimes, the pro-
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fessor will ultimately reveal the protagonist’s decision and the Average GPA of Incoming Students
subsequent results—or even bring the actual protagonist into (Class of 2019)
the classroom to share and discuss the case’s progression and Chicago Booth 3.6
outcomes in person. Columbia Business School 3.5
Cornell Johnson 3.36

In short, the case method focuses primarily on the analytical Dartmouth Tuck 3.51
process and illustrates that the problems presented have no
Duke Fuqua NA
clear-cut right or wrong responses. For a student to disagree
Harvard Business School 3.71
with the protagonist’s chosen path—even after it has proved
Michigan Ross NA
to be successful—is not unusual. After all, another approach (or
MIT Sloan 3.49
even inaction) may have produced an even better result.
Northwestern Kellogg 3.6
NYU Stern 3.48

Note that case-based learning is not specific to one academic
Stanford GSB 1
3.74
discipline. Cases are available in finance, strategy, operations,
UC Berkeley Haas 3.71
accounting, marketing, and still other areas. Further, many cases
UCLA Anderson NA
are interdisciplinary, meaning that they address more than one
UPenn Wharton 3.6
area at a time, such as requiring students to think about how a
financial decision might affect the operations of a manufactur- UVA Darden 3.5
ing company or the ways in which a marketing decision might in- Yale SOM2 3.69
volve significant financial considerations. Importantly, students 1

U.S. schools, 4.0 scale only.
in case environments are often graded on their “contribution” to 2

Median GPA listed.
the class discussion (measured by the level of one’s participation
in discussions and analysis, not on the frequency with which one offers “correct” answers), so the case method is
not for those who are uncomfortable speaking in class. However, it can be incredibly helpful for those who want
or need to practice and build confidence speaking publicly.
Lecture is the method of learning that is familiar to most people—the professor stands in front of the class and
explores a theory or event, facilitating discussion and emphasizing and explaining key learning points. Often, stu-
dents have read chapters of a textbook beforehand and have come to class with a foundation in the specific area
to be examined that day. Although the case method gives students a context for a problem, those who favor lec-
ture tend to believe that the case method is too situation specific and therefore prefer a methodical exploration
of theory that they feel can be broadly applied across situations. In lecture classes, the professor and his/her re-
search or theory are technically paramount, though students still participate, challenge ideas, and debate issues.
Note that at some schools, professors may alternate between cases and lectures within a single semester of
classes.
Several students with whom we spoke estimated that Kellogg’s classes are primarily split 50/50 between
lecture and case method, noting that team projects pervade all classes. The school is known for its em-
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phasis on teamwork, and team-based learning exists in all courses, case and lecture alike. In core classes,
professors typically assign students into teams, though in some instances, students can select their own
teams. After completing the core curriculum, some students even choose their electives as a group so they
can enter certain classes with solid teams already formed.
A Kellogg alumna remarked to mbaMission that she “can’t think of a single class where [she did] not [have]
a team.” She then cited as an example a course in which her assigned team had to construct, together, a
new financial model each week and thus needed to determine as a group many different variables and as-
sumptions, each of which affected the model’s final output. Another graduate told mbaMission she loved
the team aspect of Kellogg, yet lamented that students will sometimes remain with low-performing teams
for far too long for fear of seeming to lack a team orientation. She commented, “Not all teams work, and
that is also part of learning and growth, and people here sometimes forget that.” Teamwork even extends
beyond the academic environment at Kellogg—student clubs often have co-presidents rather than a single
president; student conferences frequently have co-chairs rather than a single chair.
Kellogg certainly seems to be a fitting place for team players, both socially and in the academic environ-
ment. Students who know themselves well and thus know that they prefer to work independently may
not “agree” with the Kellogg approach—or enjoy its environment—and should seek out a school at which
teamwork is less emphasized. Those who truly embrace group work, however, will most likely thrive at
the school. As a recently admitted student we interviewed noted, “Their [Kellogg’s] reputation for heavy
teamwork is, truthfully, one of the things that attracted me to their program. Business isn’t conducted in
a vacuum. We work in teams in the real world. Managers above all others ought to have insight into how
teams function—or don’t—and to that end, I’m happy to be going to a school that puts such a high value on
these skills.”
5. Academic Specializations/Recruitment Focus: Resources and Employers
Schools’ brands and reputations develop over time and tend to endure, Do not merely accept
even when the programs make efforts to change them. For example, many stereotypes but truly
applicants still feel that Kellogg is only a marketing school and that Chi- consider the breadth
cago Booth is only for people interested in finance, even though both pro- and depth of resources
grams boast strengths in many other areas. Indeed, this is the exact reason available at each
mbaMission started producing these guides in 2008—we wanted applicants school.
to see beyond these superficial “market” perceptions. Make sure you are
not merely accepting stereotypes but are truly considering the breadth and
depth of resources available at each school.
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School Top Industry for 2017 Graduates % Entering the Industry
Chicago Booth Consulting 32.6%
Columbia Business School Financial Services 34.4%
Cornell Johnson Financial Services 33.0%
Dartmouth Tuck Consulting 33.0%
Duke Fuqua Consulting 33.0%
Harvard Business School Financial Services 31.0%
Michigan Ross Consulting 32.7%
MIT Sloan Consulting 32.1%
Northwestern Kellogg Consulting 32.9%
NYU Stern Financial Services 32.4%
Stanford GSB Finance 32.0%
UC Berkeley Haas Technology 36.9%
UCLA Anderson Technology 30.1%
UPenn Wharton Financial Services 32.7%
UVA Darden Consulting 34.0%
Yale SOM Consulting 35.9%
Most Common Pre-MBA Industry (Class of 2019)
Chicago Booth Consulting 21%
Columbia Business School Financial Services 29%
Cornell Johnson Financial Services 26%
Dartmouth Tuck Consulting 21%
Duke Fuqua Tied: Consulting, Financial Services 19%
Harvard Business School Consulting 16%
Michigan Ross Finance 19%
MIT Sloan Financial Services 21%
Northwestern Kellogg Consulting 27%
NYU Stern Financial Services 29%
Stanford GSB Investment Management/Private Equity/Venture Capital 21%
UC Berkeley Haas Consulting 25%
UCLA Anderson Finance 25%
UPenn Wharton Consulting 26%
UVA Darden NA NA
Yale SOM NA NA
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We have dedicated the majority of this guide to exploring the principal professional specializations for which re-
sources are available at this particular school, and we encourage you to fully consider whether the MBA program
meets your personal academic needs by supplementing the information here with additional context from the
school’s career services office, by connecting with the heads of relevant clubs on campus, and perhaps even by
reaching out to alumni in your target industry.
Top Industries: Northwestern Kellogg 20171 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Consulting 32.9% 33% 35% 35% 36% 35% 37% 27%
Technology 24.9% 22% 15% 18% 12% 13% 11% 12%
Financial Services 12.9% 13% 19% 14% 20% 20% 19% 16%
Consumer Packaged Goods 11.7% 14% 12% 11% 10% 11% 11% 14%
Health Care 5.9% 7% 5% 6% 4% 6% 6% 9%
1
Kellogg changed the categorization of its employment statistics in 2014, making year-over-year comparisons using each past year’s spe-
cific employment report impossible. The figures from 2014 through 2017 are rounded to facilitate greater ease of comparison.
Kellogg is likely best known for its marketing emphasis, yet the list of top employers (defined as having
hired three or more people) for the Class of 2017 actually tells the story of a diversified school with an
emphasis on consulting (see the Appendix for the full list of companies that hired at least three graduating
students):
McKinsey & Company: 40
The Boston Consulting Group: 36
Amazon: 32
Bain & Company: 28
Microsoft Corporation: 10
Apple Inc.: 9
L.E.K. Consulting: 8
Strategy&: 8
Accenture Strategy: 6
Adobe Systems: 6
Nike, Inc.: 6
PepsiCo, Inc.: 6
SC Johnson: 6
Cisco Systems: 5
DaVita: 5
Intuit Inc.: 5
Salesforce.com: 5
Unilever Food Solutions: 5
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Anheuser-Busch InBev: 4
Danaher Corporation: 4
Deloitte Consulting LLP: 4
Oliver Wyman: 4
Procter & Gamble: 4
American Express: 3
Cambridge Group: 3
The Clorox Company: 3
Colgate-Palmolive Company: 3
Cummins Inc.: 3
Discover Financial Services: 3
Evercore Partners: 3
General Motors Company: 3
Goldman, Sachs & Co.: 3
Google Inc.: 3
J.P. Morgan: 3
Johnson & Johnson: 3
The Kraft Heinz Company: 3
Morgan Stanley: 3
Roland Berger: 3
William Blair: 3
Since at least 2005, a far higher percentage of Kellogg’s graduates have accepted consulting function po-
sitions each year than have entered marketing function positions—roughly twice as many in each of the
past three years. In addition, in 2013, the percentage of finance positions accepted also edged out the
percentage of marketing positions for the first time since 2008, though marketing regained its number two
spot in 2014, which it has held onto since. Interestingly, starting in 2011, the number of Kellogg graduates
accepting marketing positions has remained slightly lower than in previous years—hovering around 20%—
perhaps reflecting interest among the school’s MBAs in a more diverse range of job functions.
Function 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005
Consulting 33.5% 33.1% 35% 35.0% 38% 40% 40% 34% 41% 34% 33% 34% 36%
Marketing 19.1% 19.7% 20% 21.2% 17% 20% 19% 25% 20% 21% 22% 26% 21%
Finance 14.4% 16.2% 18% 13.2% 18% 17% 18% 17% 15% 24% 22% 17% 23%
Again, contradicting Kellogg’s image as “just” a marketing school, its MBA program offers students numer-
ous majors, which they can begin pursuing as early as the second quarter of the first year. Beginning with
the incoming class of 2015, Kellogg narrowed the number of possible majors from 19 to seven. Students can
choose one or none at all of the following options:
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Accounting
Economics
Finance
Managing Organizations
Marketing
Operations
Strategy
In addition, in 2015 the school added a number of “pathways” for students to optionally follow. The Kellogg
website describes a pathway as “an integrated, cross-functional sequence of courses designed to address
a particular skill set or industry for which there is active student and recruiter demand.” The pathways are
as follows:
Data Analytics
Entrepreneurship
Growth and Scaling
Health Enterprise Management
Real Estate
Social Impact
Venture Capital and Private Equity
Students are able to choose as many pathways as they want, and unlike majors, the pathways are not in-
cluded on school transcripts.
6. Alumni Base: Opportunities to Engage
The size and depth of a school’s alumni base may be important to you as you Some schools boast
seek to break into a specific field or region/country. Some MBA programs sizeable alumni
have had large classes for many years and can therefore boast sizeable networks, while
alumni networks, whereas other schools may have pockets of strength in others have pockets of
particular parts of the world or in certain industries—or can claim a smaller strength in particular
but tighter-knit and more dedicated alumni network overall. For example, regions or industries.
Dartmouth Tuck has a smaller absolute number of alumni than most top U.S.
schools but has repeatedly been touted as having the highest rate of annual
alumni giving, thanks to its very dedicated graduates.
Although acquiring detailed breakdowns of a school’s alumni base is sometimes difficult, you may want to con-
sider whether the school you are targeting has alumni clubs in your chosen professional area (i.e., some schools
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Alumni Base
Schools are listed in order from largest alumni base to smallest within each category.
NYU Stern, UPenn Wharton, Harvard Business School 75,000 to 100,000
Northwestern Kellogg, Chicago Booth 50,000 to 75,000
Michigan Ross, Columbia, UC Berkeley Haas

25,000 to 50,000
UCLA Anderson, Stanford GSB
MIT Sloan, Duke Fuqua

10,000 to 25,000
UVA Darden, Cornell Johnson
Tuck 10,000
Yale SOM or fewer
0 25,000 50,000 75,000 100,000
Note: Some schools include MBA program graduates only in their alumni total; other schools may also include alumni from their part-time,
executive, doctoral, and/or other programs, so totals may not be directly comparable.
have industry-specific alumni groups) or preferred post-MBA location. Furthermore, if you are determined to live
in a particular city/country/region after graduating, then earning your MBA in or near that area, if possible, may
be a good idea, so that you can more easily connect with local alumni while you are in school—particularly if you
want to pursue a niche professional area and do not expect to participate in on-grounds recruiting. Of course,
technological developments have greatly facilitated outreach, meaning that alumni are no longer a flight or long
drive away, but are now just a phone call, email, text, or even Skype session away.
The broader Kellogg community includes approximately 60,000 alumni worldwide, and the school’s alumni
website boasts that its graduates participate in more than 70 regional clubs around the globe. Domestic
alumni clubs are started by alumni who believe they have the potential to sign 250 or more members in
the area; international alumni clubs can be launched if 50 graduates can potentially be attracted. Regional
clubs exist in 30 states and 34 international locations, from Italy to South Africa, Israel to Peru. In addi-
tion, Kellogg alumni enjoy 23 special interest clubs, including Hispanic Business Alumni, Kellogg Alumni
Entrepreneurs, the Kellogg Alumni Ski Club, Pride at Kellogg (LGBT) Alumni, the Kellogg European Business
Alumni Club, and the Kellogg Social Impact Alumni Network.
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Prospective students need not worry that alumni interaction does not begin until after the MBA program is
over, however. Students report to mbaMission that professors make the most of the many Kellogg alumni in
the area by regularly bringing them in to speak in class or to lead case discussions on their personal, real-
world business experiences.
7. Facilities: Shaping the Academic/Social Experience
When contemplating an MBA program, do not overlook the school’s facili- If a school has not
ties. Renovations, upgrades, and new construction are all regular occurrenc- updated its facilities in
es on school campuses these days, as some programs increase their square recent years, perhaps
footage while others unify disparate areas or refresh existing spaces. Some none were needed or
schools boast on-campus housing or elite athletic facilities, others have es- the school has invested
tablished new green spaces and meeting rooms, and still others have refur- in other aspects of its
bished or added classrooms, theaters, libraries, and other such resources. program instead.
Keep in mind, though, that just because a school has not updated or added
to its facilities in recent years, this does not mean that its offerings are outdated or subpar; the lack of updates
may simply be because none have been needed or the school has invested in other aspects of its program instead.
A campus visit is always the best way to evaluate firsthand what a school has to offer, but we nonetheless dedicate
this space to a discussion of the facilities available at this particular program.
Kellogg’s Jacobs Center, named in 2001 for longtime dean Donald P. Jacobs, was built in 1972 and is unfortu-
nately—even according to members of Kellogg’s administration with whom we spoke—showing its age. The
center is a six-story building housing 17 classrooms and more than 50 study group rooms. The classrooms
are located on the lower levels and have few windows, which led one Kellogg student to tell us, “At times
you feel like you are in a bunker,” though he added, “but when you have such great professors lecturing,
you really don’t notice.”
However, after years of planning, construction began in April 2014 for a roughly 410,000-square-foot
“Global Hub,” a new flagship Kellogg building that was designed with the aim of acquiring a LEED Gold rat-
ing from the U.S. Green Building Council—a goal that was eventually surpassed when the building acquired
a Platinum rating in January 2018. Although the facility was initially intended to be constructed at the
northeast corner of the Evanston campus, the school announced in November 2010 that it had selected a
new site, this one adjacent to Kellogg’s Allen Center (which houses the school’s Executive MBA program).
The Global Hub opened in March 2017 and University President Morton Schapiro sang its praises on the
school’s website: “The Global Hub provides a spectacular new home for Kellogg and the department of
economics and symbolizes Northwestern’s commitment to these key areas of the University,” Schapiro
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said. Then Dean Sally Blount was equally pleased with the new building, stating: “This building represents
everything that Kellogg stands for—an ethos of collaboration, grounded wisdom, and pioneering vision.”
The new building includes such facilities as a 6,000-square-foot entry atrium, a 9,000-square-foot faculty
area, and the 350-seat White Family Auditorium, which accommodates dinners and lectures and is touted
by Kellogg as “[the school and university’s] signature convening space.” “There’s an excitement about this
building and what it means for our students,” said Matthew Merrick, Kellogg’s associate dean for MBA op-
erations, in an October 2015 news release. “We’re creating a unique learning and community space that will
allow us to adapt and grow far into the future.” Merrick’s words echoed those of Dean Blount: “Topping off
our new Global Hub is visible evidence of Kellogg’s progress against our strategic plan.”
Blount discussed the plans for the Global Hub in a May 2013 interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, not-
ing, “By having a building that’s opening five to ten years after all our competitors, there are things we can
do that none of them thought to do. One of the things our architects have done is create four adjoining loft
structures. They argued that the most flexible design in history is the loft.”
8. Rankings and Reputation: Important Metrics or Arbitrary Measures?
MBA rankings should always be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism, given that they can fluctuate dramati-
cally from year to year and from publication to publication. For example, if you had relied on the Financial Times’
rankings to choose the Yale School of Management as your business school in 2011 because of the program’s posi-
tion at number seven, you probably would have been disappointed to see the school then slide down to number 12
just one year later before rebounding to number nine the following year. Similarly, if you had selected UC Berkeley
Haas in 2004, when it was number 17 in Bloomberg Businessweek’s ranking, you would have been delighted to see
the program rise to number eight in 2010 before it slipped out of the top ten again to number 13 in 2012.
Can an MBA program—which is made up of so many moving parts—really The various surveys
change so much in just one or two years? Furthermore, how can one recon- should and will
cile that UVA Darden is in the tenth position (among U.S. programs) in The provide some context
Economist’s rankings but is listed at 17th by Bloomberg Businessweek and for your decision, but
by the Financial Times? Or that Stanford GSB holds the fifth position in The resist the temptation to
Economist and Bloomberg Businessweek surveys, but is ranked first by the choose a school based
Financial Times? Or that Northwestern Kellogg is ranked number eight on the on rankings alone.
Financial Times and Bloomberg Businessweek lists but holds the number one
slot in The Economist’s survey?
An MBA ranking that appears to be gaining in popularity, according to feedback we have received from candidates
in recent years, is from Poets&Quants, which aggregates what it considers the top five MBA surveys—Bloomberg
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Businessweek, The Economist, the Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, and Forbes—to create a composite
ranking.
Of course, the various surveys should and likely will provide some context for your decision, but resist the temp-
tation to choose a school based on rankings alone, because rankings may ultimately betray you—possibly even
before you graduate.
One thing to keep in mind, particularly for international students, is that a school’s reputation domestically can
be quite different from its reputation abroad. Years ago, mbaMission worked with an international candidate who
was accepted into the MBA programs at Cornell Johnson and Dartmouth Tuck. When this individual shared the
good news with his manager, his manager said, “I thought you would have gone to an Ivy League school like Princ-
eton!” Of course, Dartmouth and Cornell are in fact Ivy League institutions, and Princeton does not even have an
MBA program—the manager’s reaction illustrates how possible misconceptions can arise. So, after considering an
MBA program’s strengths, you might factor in that some schools have greater brand power in certain parts of the
world, especially if you plan to live and work abroad after you complete your studies.
We advise you to consider your MBA a long-term investment that will pay dividends throughout your life, and such
an investment should be based on more than a one-time ranking. In fact, most MBAs who are five to ten years out
of school are not even aware of what their school is now ranked. Perhaps more importantly, if you were to ask one
whether the school’s position in the rankings has any effect on his/her career, the response would certainly be an
impassioned “No!”
U.S. Ranking: 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008
Northwestern
Kellogg
Poets&Quants NA NA 5 4 5 6 5 5 7 7 NA NA
U.S. News &

6 4 5 6 6 4 4 5 4 3 NA NA
World Report
Bloomberg
NA NA 8 9 3 7 [5] 5 [4] 4 [3] 3
Businessweek 1
Financial Times NA 8 6 8 8 9 8 9 11 11 10 NA
The Economist NA NA 1 2 6 12 15 13 12 11 8 NA
1
Until 2015, Bloomberg Businessweek released rankings every two years (in November), so numbers in brackets represent carryover from
the previous year’s ranking.
From 1988, when Bloomberg Businessweek—generally accepted as the prestige U.S. business school rank-
ing—started evaluating MBA programs, Kellogg has been rated among the publication’s top ten each time,
and was ranked in the top five every year until 2014. In the 2017 Bloomberg Businessweek ranking, Kellogg
rose from the ninth spot to the eighth place. The program has climbed steadily up the The Economist’s
ranking in recent years, settling at first place domestically and internationally in 2017, after coming in
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at second place in both categories the previous year. In the Financial Times’ 2018 evaluation of MBA pro-
grams, Kellogg fell from sixth to eighth place domestically but remained unchanged internationally at
12th. Finally, the 2017 Poets&Quants ranking of U.S. MBA programs placed Kellogg fifth, slightly lower than
the previous year’s ranking of fourth.
In the 2019 U.S. News & World Report ranking, Kellogg fell two spots from fourth place to sixth in the Unit-
ed States and placed within the top 20 in the following U.S. News specialty areas: marketing (1), executive
MBA (3), part-time MBA (3), management (4), nonprofit (6, tied with Duke Fuqua), production/operations (8),
finance (11), supply chain/logistics (12, tied with two other schools), international (16), entrepreneurship
(17), and accounting (18). And in the Princeton Review’s 2018 survey of graduate business schools, Kellogg
was rated number one (out of 267 programs) for consulting and marketing, five for entrepreneurship, nine
for nonprofit, and ten for Toughest to Get Into.
Kellogg may not have the global brand recognition that Stanford, HBS, and Wharton enjoy, but we believe it
certainly is not far behind, and candidates should have no concerns at all about the “street value” of their
potential Kellogg MBA.
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Poets&Quants (2017)
1 UPenn Wharton
2 Harvard Business School
3 Stanford GSB
4 Chicago Booth
5 Northwestern Kellogg
6 MIT Sloan
7 Dartmouth Tuck
8 Columbia Business School
9 UC Berkeley Haas
10 Yale SOM
11 Michigan Ross
12 Duke Fuqua
13 UVA Darden
14 Cornell Johnson
15 UCLA Anderson
16 NYU Stern
17 Carnegie Mellon Tepper
18 UT Austin McCombs
18 UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler
20 Emory Goizueta
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U.S. News & World Report (2019) Bloomberg Businessweek (2017)
1 Harvard Business School 1 Harvard Business School
1 Chicago Booth 2 UPenn Wharton
3 UPenn Wharton 3 MIT Sloan
4 Stanford GSB 4 Chicago Booth
5 MIT Sloan 5 Stanford GSB
6 Northwestern Kellogg 6 Duke Fuqua
7 UC Berkeley Haas 7 Dartmouth Tuck
7 Michigan Ross 8 Northwestern Kellogg
9 Columbia Business School 9 Columbia Business School
10 Dartmouth Tuck 10 Rice Jones
11 Duke Fuqua 11 UC Berkeley Haas
11 Yale SOM 12 Michigan Ross
13 NYU Stern 13 Cornell Johnson
13 UVA Darden 14 Carnegie Mellon Tepper
15 Cornell Johnson 15 Washington Foster
16 UCLA Anderson 16 Yale SOM
17 Carnegie Mellon Tepper 17 UVA Darden
17 UT Austin McCombs 18 NYU Stern
19 UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler 19 UCLA Anderson
20 Emory Goizueta 20 UTA McCombs
20 USC Marshall
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Financial Times (2018)1,2 The Economist (2017)1,3
1 Stanford GSB 1 Northwestern Kellogg
2 UPenn Wharton 2 Chicago Booth
3 Harvard Business School 3 Harvard Business School
4 Chicago Booth 4 UPenn Wharton
5 Columbia Business School 5 Stanford GSB
6 MIT Sloan 6 UCLA Anderson
7 UC Berkeley Haas 7 UC Berkeley Haas
8 Northwestern Kellogg 8 Dartmouth Tuck
9 Yale SOM 9 Columbia Business School
10 Dartmouth Tuck 10 UVA Darden
11 Cornell Johnson 11 Yale SOM
12 Duke Fuqua 12 Michigan Ross
13 NYU Stern 13 Duke Fuqua
14 UCLA Anderson 14 NYU Stern
15 Michigan Ross 15 MIT Sloan
16 Georgetown McDonough 16 UF Hough
17 UVA Darden 17 IU Kelley
18 UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler 18 Vanderbilt Owen
19 Carnegie Mellon Tepper 19 UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler
20 UTA McCombs 20 Cornell Johnson
1
Reranks U.S. schools from international ranking.
2
The Financial Times ranks Northwestern Kellogg 12 internationally.
3
The Economist ranks Northwestern Kellogg 1 internationally.
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Northwestern University
Kellogg School of Management
Summary
If one were to play word association with an MBA applicant and offer “Kellogg” as a prompt, we expect that “team-
work” and “marketing” would be the most frequent replies. Located just outside Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, Kel-
logg is known for its collegial atmosphere and its outstanding innovators in the field of marketing—in particular,
marketing guru Philip Kotler. However, the school offers more than just marketing expertise. In fact, for years,
Kellogg has been quietly placing significant proportions of its MBAs into consulting and finance positions. Still, it
offers students seven majors from which to choose, providing a true diversity of specialization areas.
More than 100 years old, Kellogg is a medium-sized MBA program that consistently places near the top of repu-
table MBA rankings lists, and for the past four decades, the school has billed itself as a pioneer of collaborative
learning. In 2003, Kellogg became one of the few business schools in the United States to offer a one-year MBA,
targeting candidates who already possess significant work experience. The school has rebranded itself in more
recent years to embrace cross-disciplinary education, thereby confronting the demands of what it calls on its
website a “collaboration economy.”
In 2012, the school announced a new strategic plan to this effect, called Envision Kellogg. “To be effective and
relevant in the 21st century marketplace,” states an overview of the plan that appeared in the fall 2012 issue of
Kellogg magazine, “business education must move away from its traditional discipline-based silos.” Accordingly,
the school launched four “impact-driven” research initiatives in 2012–2013 to supplement its traditional curricular
offerings and establish a more cross-disciplinary structure: Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Markets and Cus-
tomers, Architectures of Collaboration, and Public/Private Interface. Consequently, all of Kellogg’s 17 research
centers have been integrated into these broader research clusters.
In addition, after a comprehensive review of its MBA core curriculum, completed in 2013, the school decided to
build on its elective offerings and entrepreneurial emphasis, rather than pursue a major overhaul of its core
courses. Blount noted in a 2013 Poets&Quants article, “We don’t think the foundations are going away. What is go-
ing to change is what comes after it. So we wanted to build a culture of innovation that constantly adjusts how we
build on a core.” As part of this commitment, the school has sought integration among its core and will continue
to create broader curricular opportunities by adding ten to 15 new elective courses each year. “We don’t want stu-
dents to have more requirements,” Blount told Poets&Quants. “We want them to have more choices.”
Envision Kellogg also includes plans for the construction of a new building—which opened in early 2017—and a
capital campaign with the goal of raising $350M (which was met and surpassed by $15M in fall 2017, bringing the
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campaign to an end) to fund that building’s construction, plus scholarships, programming, and global outreach.
Other strategic changes have included introducing new classroom technologies, restructuring the executive MBA
programs, and expanding the school’s international ties with Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil, the Guanghua School
of Management at Peking University in China, and the Indian School of Business.
One of the main reasons Kellogg students are so enthusiastic about the school is likely that its culture is student
driven. At Kellogg, experiential learning is emphasized, and students often act as catalysts for the creation of new
courses and for the subsequent addition of these courses to the curriculum. Furthermore, Kellogg emphasizes
teamwork and mitigates competition among classmates by structuring classes so that students form flexible
study groups and evaluate each other consistently.
“I chose Kellogg for its overall culture,” explained a first year we interviewed. “It has more of a sense of community
and acceptance for ‘nontraditional’ MBA paths, and since everything is student run and driven, everyone has an
opportunity to forge their own path with equal resources.”
Another testament to this sense of community is the way the school fosters ethical responsibility throughout stu-
dent life. Upon enrollment, all students agree to abide by the Kellogg Honor Code, engendering a commitment to
“the highest levels of integrity, professionalism, and respect for others, both inside and outside the classroom”
declares the school’s site, where it is stated that the purpose of the code is “to promote our values of integrity,
professionalism, and respect for others so that each student can fully develop intellectually and professionally
within our community.” The code functions through a system of student self-governance, and each year, new
Honor Code Committee representatives are selected by outgoing members of the committee, which consists of
one or two student co-chairs from each master’s program, eight executive MBA representatives, seven full-time
MBA students (three first-year representatives, one or two second-year representatives, and one representative
from the 1Y program), five evening and weekend MBA representatives, two MSMS students, an undisclosed number
of faculty members, and student affairs advisors from the evening, full-time, and part-time MBA programs, along
with MSMS. This committee collectively acts as the official interpreters and arbiters of the honor system.
Calling the school’s honor code “amazing,” a student wrote on his personal blog in 2009, “People trust each other.
I assume that my peers will not cheat. For example, we might have a closed book, three-hour time limit final exam
that the professor will give us to take home and do at our convenience in a three-hour period. The exam would
account for 40% of the grade in the class, yet there would be no monitoring for the students.”
The Dean
In the spring of 2010, Northwestern announced the hiring of Sally Blount (PhD ’92) as dean of the Kellogg School
of Management, replacing Dipak Jain, who stepped down from the position after eight years. Blount came to the
business school from New York University, where she was dean of the undergraduate college at the Stern School of
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Business. Called a “bold choice for Kellogg” in a 2010 Bloomberg Businessweek article, Blount brought fundraising
expertise and experience with global curricula that made her a good match for Kellogg’s expanding international
interests.
During her tenure as the school's dean, Blount oversaw significant changes to Kellogg’s curriculum and helped
launch a $350M capital campaign that raised $365M by its completion in the fall of 2017. One of her focuses was
to ensure that Kellogg not only remains a respectable institute, but also grows and evolves. “Growth is the most
pressing challenge every organization faces,” Blount told Poets&Quants in 2014. “Our brand strategy highlights
the important dual-meaning of the English word ‘growth’—both in terms of increasing value and increasing self-
knowledge and insight.” Blount appears to be especially proud of Kellogg’s new flagship building, the Global Hub,
which was completed in early 2017. At the inauguration of the building, Blount stated how honored she was to be
the dean who saw the Hub come to life.
Blount has also reportedly maintained a high level of student engagement and participation in administrative
decision making. Blount told the Financial Times in 2011 that her resolution for the New Year was “to initiate dis-
cussions among faculty, students, and alumni that explore what it takes to educate wise, collaboratively minded
leaders—leaders who will build strong organizations and transform markets for the betterment of society.”
Referring to the transparency and responsiveness of the school’s administration, a first year we interviewed said,
“Between Dean Blount and [Elizabeth Ziegler, the chief innovation officer of education and technology and former
associate dean of MBA programs and dean of students], I think more than anything they have a very clear vision,
but it’s more that they’re getting things done quickly. The input that they get, they ask for from students. It’s a
very quick turnaround time, which is great, especially since we’re only there for one or two years, so you can see
the change happening.” She added that in addition to overseeing improvements in classroom technology, Blount
has been proactive in incorporating student feedback into administrative decision making: “Something that I
was involved with that I thought was very cool is that there’s a Dean’s Consulting Alliance now. So we got credit
last quarter for basically being on a small consulting team, working on an issue or something that the leadership
wanted to look at. We presented it, and now we’re actually implementing what we suggested.”
In September 2017, Blount announced that she would step down from her position as dean at the end of the 2017–
2018 academic year. Blount specified in the video announcement of her departure that she plans to take a year-
long sabbatical after stepping down: “I have long dreamed of taking a sabbatical year to travel, to write, and I want
to spend some time thinking about my own final chapter in education as the pace of transformation accelerates in
our workplace.” “Kellogg is in such strong shape and I am so proud of all that we have accomplished together,” she
noted. “What an exciting reflection point. It is an ideal moment for a new leader to be selected and take the reins.”
As of the updating of this guide for 2018–2019, Blount’s successor had not been appointed.
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Professional Specializations
Consulting
As mentioned, when MBA candidates think about Kellogg, most naturally think “marketing.” Many may be sur-
prised, then, to discover that that 32.9% of Kellogg graduates in 2017 entered the consulting industry and that six
of the year’s top ten hiring companies were consulting firms:
• McKinsey & Company: 40
• The Boston Consulting Group: 36
• Amazon: 32
• Bain & Company: 28
• Microsoft Corporation: 10
• Apple Inc.: 9
• L.E.K. Consulting: 8
• Strategy&: 8
• Accenture: 6
• Adobe Systems: 6
• Nike, Inc.: 6
• PepsiCo, Inc.: 6
• SC Johnson: 6
In fact, for at least the past decade, a far higher percentage of Kellogg’s graduates have accepted positions in the
consulting industry each year than in any other industry (or function, for that matter).
Although aspiring consultants are given no hard rules about which academic path they should follow, Kellogg of-
fers multiple majors that students interested in a career in this field would likely find appealing, including Manag-
ing Organizations, Operations, and Strategy. Further, Kellogg offers several experiential learning opportunities to
those seeking to become consultants. A first year with whom we spoke and who is targeting a career in consulting
said that in addition to Kellogg’s strengths in general management and marketing, the school’s “strong recruiting
networks into consulting” are primarily why he chose the program for his MBA. He noted that Kellogg is helping
him prepare for his chosen field through “a lot of team-based work and problem solving through cases.”
Via Kellogg’s “Management Lab” (M-Lab), first-year students can take a trial run at a consulting project before
starting their summer internships (the lab is also open to second-year students, but we were told that few typi-
cally participate). This course matches students with outside organizations that have specific management ques-
tions or problems, and students are mentored by consultants from reputable firms as they work to solve the issue
over a ten-week term. Prospective students may be impressed by the breadth of firms that have participated in
the “Management Lab,” each offering its own specialized opportunities, from small businesses (Bredemann Car
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Dealerships) to Fortune 500 companies (Motorola, SunTrust) to nonprofit organizations (Youth Job Center of Evan-
ston, Northwestern University Museum).
Similarly, via the “Global Lab” (G-Lab), students examine a real-world problem affecting an international business
and attempt to solve this issue with support from a company contact and a faculty advisor. Students spend two
weeks on-site at the designated firm and meet with senior management, then present their findings to the compa-
ny. In addition, the “Analytical Consulting Lab” is a practical course wherein students apply classroom techniques
to a real-world analytical task. According to the course description, students in this lab work in groups to harness
and apply data analysis via “statistics, multivariate regression, optimization, stochastic simulation, decision tree
analysis, time series analysis, forecasting, real options, risk analysis, data mining, and discrete event simulation”
in an effort to solve a management problem (which has been preapproved by faculty).
Further opportunities for hands-on work with firms or organizations—generally considered excellent training for
aspiring consultants—include the following courses: “Advanced Topics in Marketing” (in which students analyze
a marketing issue and present findings to management) and “Corporate Innovation and New Ventures” (in which
students help develop innovative ideas for major corporations). Students can branch out in other ways by propos-
ing their own course of study via an independent research project.
Kellogg’s Consulting Club claims on its site to be one of the largest student-run clubs on campus. Reflecting the
spirit of teamwork that pervades Kellogg, the club works to prepare students interested in this field for the job
hunt. Through a second-year/first-year mentorship program, guest lectures by professors, “day in the life of a
consultant” presentations, case interview workshops, and extensive online offerings, the group readies students
for the unique consulting case interview process while also providing the psychological support needed to suc-
ceed in this field. In addition, the club regularly organizes Lunch & Learn sessions with representatives from such
organizations as McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Accenture.
Meanwhile, for those looking to take action as a consultant through student-led clubs, the Kellogg Family En-
terprise Club (formerly the Kellogg Family Business Organization) gives students the opportunity to engage in a
hands-on, confidential consulting project with other students who are seeking to improve their family firms.
Entrepreneurship, Private Equity, and Venture Capital
The entrepreneurial curriculum at Kellogg offers nearly 40 classes that cover a variety of subdisciplines within
the field of entrepreneurship (e.g., entrepreneurial finance, new product innovation, creating new ventures, family
business). Courses include “New Venture Discovery” (formerly “Entrepreneurship and New Venture Formation”),
which focuses on business plan development, “New Venture Launch,” and “Launching and Leading Startups.”
As part of Envision Kellogg, the school’s strategic plan, the MBA program introduced four new impact initiatives
in 2012, one of which is the Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative (KIEI). Overseen by the Larry and
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Carol Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice, the KIEI offers numerous opportunities for students to develop
their entrepreneurial acumen. To help bolster the school’s offerings in this area, three new full-time hires were
added to the Levy Institute’s faculty in 2012–2013. Students seeking to start their own business can now take
advantage of such courses as “Intellectual Property for Entrepreneurs” and “Entrepreneurship through Acqui-
sition.” Although Kellogg ended the Innovation and Entrepreneurship major in 2015, the new Entrepreneurship
pathway offers a plethora of courses that could be of interest to those hoping to gain expertise in the field. Stu-
dents may choose courses that are industry-focused and experimental (“Real Estate Entrepreneurship,” “Social
Innovation: Designing for Change”), NUvention-based (“Energy,” “Arts”), or “building blocks” (“Entrepreneurial
Selling,” “Startup Programming and Management”), in addition to launch-focused three-course series intended
for students who have a solid ideas for new ventures. The launch-based courses are, respectively, “New Venture
Discovery,” “New Venture Development,” and “New Venture Launch.”
Beyond the classroom, the Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice organizes numerous opportunities for stu-
dents to participate in business plan competitions. In fact, a team from Kellogg claimed first place at the Inter-
national Impact Investing Challenge (since renamed the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge)
at the World Bank in Washington, DC, in 2013. Another Kellogg team won the regional title in the 2013 Venture
Capital Investment Competition, which is hosted by the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North
Carolina. The Levy Institute also manages the Kellogg Entrepreneurial Internship Program and the Levy Social
Entrepreneurship Lab, which provides funding for students to test their social entrepreneurship concepts.
In addition, the Levy Institute offers private equity internships, wherein rising students intern with small busi-
nesses or private equity firms to facilitate career transitions that would otherwise be challenging for those with-
out experience. A fairly new offering, introduced in 2013 as part of the KIEI, is the Kellogg Entrepreneurial Intern-
ship Program, which offers a stipend of up to $5,000 to first-year students for a ten-week summer internship with
a host company.
Entrepreneurs coming from or planning to enter a family business will be interested to learn about Kellogg’s
Center for Family Enterprises, which is part of the KIEI—illustrating Kellogg’s stance that family business is not a
“stodgy” domain but represents exciting growth opportunities. The center not only publishes research and cases
on family business but also makes outreach and networking significant parts of its efforts. For example, the cen-
ter guides students to the aforementioned Kellogg Family Business Organization, within the Family Business Club,
which confidentially consults to family-run companies. Similarly, the goal of the Family Enterprises Alumni Club is
to establish a global community of entrepreneurs who can share with and learn from one another.
The Kellogg Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club (formerly the Entrepreneurship Club and the separate
Private Equity and Venture Capital Club) runs career treks in Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco to assist
students with networking and finding employment opportunities in the field. In 2014, club members also traveled
to Detroit to visit such companies as Bedrock Real Estate Services, Detroit Venture Partners, Grand Circus, and
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Vectorform. Other past treks have been to such enterprises as Uber, Airbnb, Lightbank, Sandbox, 1871, Lending
Club, Klout, Nest, BranchOut, Snip.it, Facebook, Prosper, AdMob, and Breathe Technologies.
A former club president told mbaMission, “eClub’s position has evolved to be a nerve center for student entre-
preneurs in which we provide various services.” In 2015, eClub joined forces with the High Tech Club, the Private
Equity/Venture Capital Club, and the KIEI to introduce the eChats series, in which industry experts in the areas of
venture capital, entrepreneurship, and technology connect with students via Skype to discuss innovation within
technology. Speakers thus far have included the chief marketing officer of CommonBond; an author and associ-
ate professor of computer science at Georgetown University; the co-founder and CEO of Warby Parker; a venture
capitalist from Foundry Group; and a managing partner at Union Square Ventures.
Among the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club’s offerings during the 2017–2018 academic year were a
venture capital boot camp, a company visit to the offices of ShipBob in Chicago, and an introduction to data sci-
ence workshop. Among the group’s other offerings is a speaker series, which in 2016–2017 featured a fireside chat
with the founder and CEO of Appirio. In 2014–2015, the series featured a presentation by the founder of Muse D
Territoires and the co-founders of The Barre Code. Club members also benefit from a range of professional and
networking opportunities, which in recent years have included a pitch workshop, a speed networking event, and a
panel series featuring such topics as “Starting a Company While at Kellogg” and “Working for a Startup.” The group
also frequently hosts Lunch & Learn sessions, which have featured speakers from such companies as MATTER,
Aligned Modern Health, and Ministry of Supply.
Given the school’s efforts to expand its entrepreneurial offerings, a number of opportunities exist in which Kel-
logg students can try their hand at establishing their own ventures. Celebrating its sixth year in 2017, for example,
StartupNU is a university-wide competition in which teams of students are challenged to pitch an idea, develop a
business plan, and launch a company in just 48 hours. Students propose concepts in one of four possible venture
tracks—Web, energy, impact, and mixed—and receive mentorship and guidance from faculty advisors. Past win-
ners include PageVault in 2014, FallProof in 2013, and License Buddy in 2012 (the inaugural event), a company that
helps professionals manage continuing education licensing requirements.
Kellogg’s Private Equity Club boasts over 600 members. The club hosts company presentations, treks to Boston
and the Bay Area, and lunch and learn events. The club sponsors Venture Capital and Private Equity boot camps in
the fall of each year, so students can learn from others in the Kellogg community with experience in these fields.
Speakers at the event can include professors, alumni, and students who have worked or done research in these
industry areas.
The club’s 19th annual Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference was held in April 2018 with keynote speeches
by the chairman and general partner of New Enterprise Associates and the founder and managing partner of Waud
Capital Partners. An “Entrepreneurial Spotlight” was hosted for the co-founder and co-CEO of Allbirds. The event’s
panel discussions explored such subjects as “Rethinking Innovation and Investment Opportunities in Healthcare,”
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“The Future of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technologies,” and “Developing Talent in the Middle Market.” The
daylong event concluded with a networking cocktail reception.
The club’s April 2017 conference, themed “Kellogg Spark,” featured keynote speeches by a venture partner at 500
Startups and the chief financial officer of Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation. Discussion panels and fireside
chats covered such subjects as “True Confessions: What I Learned from My Big Missteps as CEO,” “Managing Your
Board,” and “Demystifying How VCs Make Decisions.” A networking cocktail hour concluded the daylong event’s
activities.
The 2016 event was themed “Breaking Boundaries: Differentiation in Competitive Private Equity and Venture Capi-
tal Markets” and explored such industries as health care, technology, and energy. The event’s panel discussions
included such topics as “Impact Investing: What Is It and Is It Effective?” “Investing in the Highly-Regulated and
Evolving World of Healthcare,” and “The Future of Investing in Energy.” A co-founder of Summit Partners and the
managing director of Shasta Ventures delivered the conference’s keynote speeches. The day also offered several
networking opportunities.
The 2015 conference, themed “Building Value in the New Era of Private Equity and Venture Capital,” provided
participants with the opportunity to discuss the topic of value enhancement and notable changes in the private
equity and venture capital industries. The daylong event featured keynote addresses by the co-founder of Exact-
Target and the co-CEO of Madison Dearborn Partners. Panel discussions examined such topics as “The Next Gen-
eration Limited Partner,” “Silicon Valley vs. the World: The Rise of New Entrepreneurial Hubs,” and “Responding to
the Unexpected: Redefining Strategy Post-Investment,” and the conference closed with a networking reception.
As mentioned, the Private Equity Club has also been known to sponsor East and West Coast Networking Treks to
allow students to advance their connections in the field. Companies students have visited on past treks include
Clarion Capital Partners, 2x Consumer Products Growth Partners, H.I.G. Capital, Berkshire Partners, Spark Capital,
Northwest Venture Partners, Venrock, and Lightbank. Further, the club offers panel discussions and presenta-
tions by industry leaders—in 2017–2018, these included a happy hour at the offices of NextGen Growth Partners
and a presentation titled “Global Search Fund Investors” by representatives from Relay Investments. Events in
2016–2017 included a Lunch & Learn with representatives from the Heizer Center for Private Equity and Venture
Capital and “VC in the Trenches” with the managing director of Shasta Ventures. 2015–2016 events included “En-
trepreneurship through Acquisition: An Investor and Family Office Perspective,” which featured a representative
from Halstatt, and a Lunch & Learn with the manager of Northwestern’s Endowment.
Many Kellogg students interested in a career in entrepreneurship or a related field choose to join EPIC (previously
known as inNUvation), a club that unites parties interested in these industries from across the entire Northwest-
ern University campus. Formed initially through the Kellogg Entrepreneurship Club, EPIC now brings together stu-
dents from the journalism schools; engineering, arts, and sciences; health care; law schools; and undergraduate
programs at Northwestern. EPIC works to fulfill its mission—to encourage entrepreneurial spirit through educa-
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tion and the sharing of ideas—through events such as monthly pitch challenges, an applied research day, the e@
nu speaker series, and the NU Venture Challenge.
For four years, the club sponsored the university-wide Entrepreneurship@NU conference, but in 2014–2015, this
became the e@nu speaker series, which according to its website offers “lectures, panels and dialogues about
the topics that matter most to entrepreneurs and innovators at Northwestern.” Featured speakers thus far have
included an author and the former president of the entertainment and devices division at Microsoft; the founder
and CEO of SBB Research Group; the co-founder of PayPal; and the founder and CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center.
The student-run Venture Cat (formerly the NU Venture Challenge) is a university-wide entrepreneurship competi-
tion in which teams compete in three rounds for cash prizes. At least one member of each team must be an under-
graduate or graduate Northwestern student, and the club encourages students from the various schools at the
university to create teams and enter. Up to $100,000 in prize money is awarded based on criteria such as creativity
of concept, likelihood of success, growth potential, and venture sustainability. Awards for “Best Undergrad” and
“Best Green Energy/Sustainability” are also conferred. In the past, the challenge has taken place during the En-
trepreneurship@NU Conference but has been a separate event in recent years.
Winners in 2017 included Tiltas, a platform created to connect mentors with formerly incarcerated individuals,
while 2016 winners included The Graide Network, which connects middle and high school teachers with teaching
assistants. The competition’s grand prize in 2015 was awarded to Opticent Health, which develops non-invasive
eye disease tests. The grand prize at the previous year’s event (2014) went to PageVault, a website–capturing pro-
gram designed to assist lawyers in bringing online evidence into the courtroom.
Kellogg’s employment report for the Class of 2017 notes that 0.6% entered the venture capital industry (0.9% in
2016),and 2.3% entered the private equity industry (3.3% in 2016). In addition, the employment summary data for
the class indicate that 12 of the school’s 2017 graduates were starting their own businesses rather than participat-
ing in conventional recruiting. Firms in these areas that recruited Kellogg MBAs in 2016–2017 include City Capital
Ventures, ZX Ventures, and Basis Set Ventures.
Finance
When mbaMission president Jeremy Shinewald asked a high-ranking admissions officer at Kellogg, “What should
Kellogg be known for that it is not known for currently?” he was told, “Finance.” When we interviewed students for
this guide, many of them concurred, and one even said, “I am not going into finance, but I know that this is an area
in which applicants just do not know that we are strong.”
Kellogg boasts a more than 40-member finance faculty (including visiting professors) that teaches more than 50
courses in this study area. Further, Kellogg offers a finance major, which prepares students for fields including
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investment management, private equity, and investment banking. The Kellogg finance department has further
identified a venture capital and private equity pathway, which offers numerous courses on those subjects.
The finance department also offers a yearlong “Asset Management Practicum” course, wherein students manage a
portion of Kellogg’s endowment. As of the updating of this guide for 2018–2019, the value of the portfolio stood at
approximately $8.4M. Unlike at some other graduate business schools, where students manage such funds com-
pletely on their own and are graded on their performance, students in “Asset Management Practicum” learn about
investment theory and speak with practitioners in the field throughout the year. Students enrolled in the course
must also complete two finance prerequisites and a total of three to four asset management–related corequisites.
In 2011, 20 members of the “Asset Management Practicum” were chosen by lottery to travel to Omaha, Nebraska,
to meet with Warren Buffett. In addition to a tour of a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary and lunch with Buffett at
a local restaurant, the students enjoyed a two-hour question-and-answer session with the investment guru. A
second year who took part in the trip told mbaMission, “He covered topics such as investment strategy, his beliefs
on U.S. public policy, his predictions for the EU, aging, how almost anyone can succeed in the market, and the
importance of loving your job. Mr. Buffett was so full of energy, and his ability to make complex topics seem ap-
proachable was unparalleled. He was surprisingly willing to play around, and he definitely didn’t take himself too
seriously, which was tremendously refreshing.”
The finance department sponsors a number of additional opportunities for students to gain further exposure to
leaders in the industry. In 2017–2018, the department’s bag lunch series invited academics to discuss such esoteric
topics as “Optimal Bank Leverage Restrictions,” “Desperate House Sellers: Distress Among Developers,” and “How
Do Shocks to Owner Wealth Affect Firm Employment? Evidence from Matched Owner-Firm-Employee Data.” Topics
in 2016–2017 included “Information Sharing and Lender Specialization: Evidence from the U.S. Commercial Lend-
ing Market,” “Common Ownership and Political Convergence: The Role of Capital Contributions,” “Real Effects of
Capping Leverage in the Banking Sector,” and “Small and Large Firms Over the Business Cycle.” In 2015–2016, these
topics included “Liquidity and Return Reversals,” “Agency and Crisis: Evidence From Mutual Fund Voting” “Munici-
pal Borrowing Costs and State Policies for Distressed Municipalities,” and “Substitution Between Parents’ Home
Equity and Students’ Borrowing: Evidence from the Housing Boom and Bust.”
Kellogg has a variety of clubs and events to support those who aspire to enter the financial arena. The Corporate
Finance Club and the Investment Banking Capital Markets Club provide mentorship, resume reviews, and interview
preparation assistance. In addition, the clubs regularly host speakers, such as a director of the General Motors
global connected consumer experience group; co-head of global technology investment banking at Morgan Stan-
ley, who discussed the Google IPO; and the former CEO of AlliedSignal, whose Q&A concentrated on the mergers
and acquisitions process at his former company.
Originally established in 1964 as a $1,000 management fund for undergraduate business students, the Investment
Management Club eventually found a home at Kellogg and has since served the university’s wider finance commu-
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nity. In particular, we learned that club membership tends to overlap with enrollment in the “Asset Management
Practicum,” a yearlong, experiential learning course in which students analyze and manage an approximately
$8.4M portfolio.
In addition to providing career resources to aspiring investment managers, the Investment Management Club’s
mission is “to be the focal point of contact for mutual funds, hedge funds, and other investment managers seek-
ing interaction with Kellogg students,” states its site. To this end, the club sponsors stock pitch workshops and
interactive speaker sessions.
In 2017, 12.9% (12.8% in 2016) of Kellogg’s graduates entered positions in the financial services industry at such
firms as Morgan Stanley; William Blair; J.P. Morgan; American Express; and Goldman, Sachs & Co. Clearly, Kellogg
has little trouble placing its MBAs into finance potions, though one alumnus jokingly told us that he got a job in
finance “by accident,” saying, “Recruiters are in town competing for students at [Chicago Booth]. It doesn’t cost
much to come across town [to Kellogg] and find hidden talent eager to work for their firms.”
Health Care and Biotechnology
Kellogg formerly offered a Health Enterprise Management major, but in 2015 began solely offering the program in
pathway form. The Healthcare at Kellogg (HCAK) pathway offers flexibility in that it offers experiential and field
course options, including “NUVention Medical Innovation I” and “Medical Product Early Stage Commercialization.”
Some students interested in the HCAK pathway—and particularly those interested in biotechnology—who lack
significant scientific knowledge may find the program a bit daunting. Recognizing this, the HCAK program runs a
Science Boot Camp in the fall quarter to ensure that students are conversant in the language of the field. In addi-
tion, Boot Camp Saturdays are offered each quarter and involve topics and speakers that are “designed to provide
a vision of current and future developments as well as needs in the biotechnology industry,” explains the school’s
site. Further, the health care program pairs interested students with mentors who meet with them once a month
for three hours to discuss their academic and career objectives.
As students come up to speed, they can enter the aforementioned, multidisciplinary “NUVention Medical Inno-
vation” class (I and II), which brings together industry leaders, top faculty members, and students from several
of Northwestern University’s graduate schools (law, engineering, medicine, and business). During this two-term
class, students experience the “entire innovation life cycle from ideation to prototyping, legal protection, market
sizing, and business plan development,” states the course description. Students even shadow surgeons and ob-
serve clinicians to facilitate their brainstorming sessions for an innovative product—ultimately, an actual product
is created and presented to potential investors.
The HCAK program hosts the annual Biotech and Healthcare Case Competition, which has been sponsored in
recent years by the biopharmaceutical company AbbVie Inc. Teams from schools around the world apply for the
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competition—more than 50 teams did so in 2018, and 14 were chosen to complete from such programs as MIT Sloan
and Dartmouth Tuck. Competing teams addressed the challenge of how a Salt Lake City-based LASIK clinic could
compete with other clinics’ lower prices, and students from Kellogg claimed first place. The Kellogg team placed
second in the 2017 competition, and the school’s teams have received honorable mentions in the past five compe-
titions prior to 2017. In 2016, Kellogg teams won big with school teams placing first and second.
Another notable program at Kellogg is the Global Health Initiative (GHI)—co-founded in 2004 by then Kellogg pro-
fessor Daniel Diermeier, with several students in leadership and advisory roles—in which academics, students,
and representatives from corporations and nonprofits create products that solve medical problems around the
world. One past project that stood out in particular to us at mbaMission was the GHI’s receipt of a $4.9M grant
from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop diagnostic devices capable of identifying the HIV virus.
For students interested in health care and/or nonprofit work with an international angle, the GHI may provide an
interesting union of practical and international experience.
The student-run Kellogg Healthcare Club (formerly the Health Enterprise Management Club) attracts students pur-
suing the HCAK pathway as well as those who are not. The club offers networking support, career development,
and educational opportunities to assist students in furthering their interest in this dynamic field. The organization
also sponsors a speaker series, “mini-med school seminars” (physician-led and corporate-sponsored sessions on
a particular disease that include analysis of the medical products and devices used in its treatment), and tours of
companies and hospitals. Further, the club coordinates opportunities for students to network with alumni and to
participate in Job Treks (Biotech, Pharma, and Med Device Treks).
Kellogg also sponsors an annual Business of Healthcare Conference, founded in 1999. The January 2018 confer-
enced, themed “Is Tech Delivering on Its Healthcare Promise?,” had as keynote speakers the founder and CEO of
Quartet and the executive vice president of UPMC Enterprises. Panel discussions covered the topics “Using Tech
to Deliver the Best Pharma and Biotech Therapies to Patients,” “The Business Case for Investment in Health IT,”
“How Do We Make Health Data More Productive?,” and “Beyond the Office: Using Tech to Expand Access to Care.”
The event also featured a start-up fair and a concluding networking reception.
The January 2017 event explored the theme “The Value Proposition: Evaluating the Sustainability of Value-Based
Care” and featured the CEO and president of Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the co-founder and chief strategy of-
ficer of Valence Health as keynote speakers. Panel discussions examined the topics “Behavior Change: Affect-
ing Health and Wellness,” “Value-Based Pricing: Innovating Towards Outcomes,” “Value-Based Care: Results in
Practice,” and “Population Analytics: Turning Data into Actionable Insights.” The day’s events concluded with a
networking reception.
The January 2016 event was themed “Consumer-Directed Healthcare: Improving Our Health System by Empowering
Patients” and featured the managing partner and co-founder of 7wire Ventures and the global head of marketing
insights at Cigna Healthcare as keynote speakers. Panel discussions covered such topics as “Developing Trends
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for Direct-to-Consumer Marketing and Sales,” “Price and Quality Transparency: How Do We Deliver Better Tools
for Patients,” “The Power of Knowing Your Genome,” and “Shopping for Health Insurance: How Are Insurers and
Providers Connecting With Patients on the Exchanges?” A networking reception concluded the event.
The conference was not held in 2015. The theme of the 2014 conference was “Partnership for Success: Innovative
Opportunities for Tomorrow’s Healthcare,” and serving as keynote speakers were the vice president and chief
medical officer of Qualcomm Life and the chief marketing, product, and innovation officer of UnitedHealthcare.
The conference featured four panels on the topics of “From Healthcare to Health: Connecting Insurers and Pro-
viders,” “The Future of Retail Health: Partnerships with Employers and Payers,” “Bundled Care: How ACOs Could
Change the Game,” and “R&D Revamped and Corporate Venture Funds.”
In 2017, 5.9% of Kellogg’s graduating class accepted positions in the health care products and services industry
(6.7% in 2016) with organizations such as Davita; Johnson & Johnson; athenahealth, Inc.; CVS Health; Medtronic,
Inc.; and Intermountain Healthcare.
International Business
Students interested in international business can choose to take the previously discussed G-Lab (see the Consult-
ing section for more detail), which allows them to work with an international company for one quarter and consult
to it on a business problem it is facing. Moreover, Kellogg offers a plethora of approved study abroad opportuni-
ties, which typically take place in the fall of a student’s second year. If a student’s preferred study abroad school
has not already been approved, he/she can apply to have Kellogg research and approve the choice.
Kellogg has exchange agreements with the following international schools:
• Australian School of Business, Sydney, Australia (fall only)
• China Europe International Business School, Shanghai, China
• Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv, Israel (fall only)
• Copenhagen School of Economics and Business Administration, Copenhagen, Denmark (fall only)
• COPPEAD Graduate School of Business, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (fall only)
• École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales, Cergy-Pontoise Cedex, France
• ESADE Business School, Barcelona, Spain
• Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo, FundaçãoGetulio Vargas, Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing, China (fall only)
• HEC-ISA School of Management, Jouy en Josas, France
• Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Tokyo, Japan
• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
• IE Business School, Madrid, Spain (fall only)
• IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain
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• INCAE Business School, Alajuela, Costa Rica
• Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India
• INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France (closed for the 2018–2019 academic year)
• INSEAD, Singapore (fall only) (closed for the 2018–2019 academic year)
• IPADE Business School, Mexico City, Mexico
• Keio University Graduate School of Business Administration, Yokohama, Japan
• London Business School, United Kingdom (closed for the 2018–2019 academic year)
• London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
• Melbourne Business School, Australia
• Nanyang Business School, Singapore
• National University of Singapore, Singapore (fall only)
• Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany (fall only)
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
• Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Sasin Graduate School of Business, Bangkok, Thailand
• SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan, Italy
• SKK Graduate School of Business, Seoul, Korea
• Tsinghua University, School of Economics and Management, Beijing, China (fall only)
• Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina (winter only)
• University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, Cape Town, South Africa
• University of Edinburgh Business School, Scotland (winter only)
• University of St. Gallen for Business Administration, Law, and Social Sciences, Switzerland
• Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (fall only)
Reflecting Kellogg’s significant concentration of international students on campus—35% of the students who en-
tered in 2017 have international citizenship (35% in 2016 as well, and 40% in 2015)—the school has more than 15
nationally, regionally, and ethnically focused clubs, including the European Business Club, the Africa Business
Club, and the Korean Business Club. A second-year student we interviewed remarked, “Kellogg is a great school
for international students …. This contributes to the classroom environment being very diverse and enriched by
international perspectives. Socially, international students have no problem fitting into the very welcoming Kel-
logg culture.”
The biennial Latin American Business Conference had as its March 2015 theme “Harnessing Latin America’s Great-
est Growth Opportunities” and offered two keynote addresses, a round table discussion, and a panel. Serving as
keynotes were the executive vice president and chief revenue officer of Avianca—Colombia’s national airline—
and the co-founder and CEO of Monashees Capital. Participants in the round table discussion explored the topic
“Leadership in Transformation: How to Transform Companies to Grow and Compete in the Global Market,” while
those on the conference’s panel concentrated on “Opportunities and Challenges of the Hispanic and Latin Ameri-
can Culture.”
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The March 2013 conference, themed “Introducing the Real Latin America,” featured panels on “E-Business in Latin
America,” “Family Business in Latin America,” and “The Transformation of Latin American Industry.” A found-
ing partner of Monashees Capital and the head of Credicorp’s regional investment banking division at Banco de
Credito gave the event’s keynote addresses, and among the conference’s multiple sponsors were Credicorp, Bain
& Company, General Motors, Itaú, and John Deere. The event concluded with a networking reception.
The African Business Club hosted the fifth annual Kellogg Africa Business Conference in April 2014—the most
recent we could find on record—with the theme “Navigating Africa: A Practical Guide to Doing Business on the
Continent.” With the stated goal of facilitating discussion among Africa’s political and business leaders and with
an emphasis on developing practical ideas, the conference welcomed the chief financial officer of GE Africa as its
keynote speaker. A series of three panel discussions covered the topics “Innovation in Modern Day Africa,” “En-
trepreneurship Spotlight: How I Did It,” and “China in Africa: A Win-Win Situation?” The conference also offered a
networking session and a five-year anniversary cocktail reception and celebration.
In 2013, the conference was themed “iAfrica: Innovation in Africa’s Emerging Industries,” and the CEO of Ecobank
delivered the event’s keynote address. Representatives from both corporate and governmental organizations—
such as the Republic of Nigeria, Oando Energy Resources, the International Finance Corporation, the Volta River
Authority, Unilever, and Novare—participated in three discussion panels on “Satisfying a New Demand: Address-
ing the Needs of the Burgeoning Middle Class,” “Harnessing Africa’s Green Revolution: Seeding New Innovations in
Agriculture,” and “Powering Africa: Comparing and Contrasting Traditional and Renewable Energy Opportunities.”
The event also offered a leadership roundtable discussion featuring the CFO of GE Africa, the founder/chairman
of Econet Wireless, and the chairman of AngloGold Ashanti, followed by a career fair and networking reception.
The eighth annual Greater China Business Conference was held in 2015—the most recent we could find on record—
with the theme “China’s Next Chapter: Future Growth Engine.” The event focused on specific aspects of China’s
growth via three panels, titled “Technology and Innovation: The Next Wave of Chinese Innovation,” “Retail and
Consumer Market: The Next Billion Customers and Cross-Channel Management,” and “Sustainability: How Can
China Continually Grow Its Economy in a Sustainable Way?” The president of Nielsen Greater China delivered the
conference’s keynote address, and the daylong event concluded with a networking reception. Elements of the
conference were broadcast on a webinar platform for remote participants.
The 2014 Greater China Business Conference, themed “China’s Prosperity: The Future of Investment and Con-
sumption,” explored the opportunities generated by growing consumer demand in China. The event welcomed as
keynotes the Chinese Consul General to Chicago, the former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in
China, and the vice president/chief strategy officer of Lenovo. An economic panel explored the topic “The Future
of China Wealth,” while an overseas enterprises panel asked, “How Can Non-Chinese Enterprises Benefit from
China’s Consumption and Expansion?” and a Chinese enterprises panel asked, “How Should Chinese Enterprises
Handle Their Expansion in the Context of Globalization?” The daylong event also offered a networking lunch and a
post-conference networking session.
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A second-year student we interviewed commented on international recruiting at Kellogg, noting, “Careerwise,
the Career Management Center has been making some great efforts in order to both attract international com-
panies to recruit at Kellogg and support international students looking to work in the United States for American
companies. While the latter is never easy, the school has accomplished a lot, and I’m sure will continue on that
same path.” International firms such as BNP Paribas; CMR Falabella; ACT in Africa; GuiaBolso; Rakuten, Inc.; British
Telecommunications; and Tencent hired members of Kellogg’s Class of 2017. In addition, 10.9% of Kellogg’s 2017
graduates accepted positions in firms outside the United States (12.8% in 2016 and 15.7% in 2015).
Marketing
As mentioned earlier, Kellogg is most closely associated with marketing—so much so that many people tend to
refer to Kellogg as a “marketing school.” Said a recently admitted student we interviewed, “Kellogg has a well-
known reputation as the best marketing program. It’s incredible—I’ve never seen anybody challenge it!” Kellogg
has 47 professors, more than 50 electives, and a major dedicated to this field.
The school’s Marketing major is designed for students who want significant exposure to the field. According to the
school’s website, the major “provides students with the consumer behavior and marketing analytics tools needed
to develop a rich depiction of the customer purchase journey.” This major requires taking one course from a list of
four (“Marketing Research and Analytics,” “Retail Analytics,” “Digital Marketing Analytics,” and “Customer Analyt-
ics”), and one from a list of seven (including “Business Marketing,” “Marketing Channel Strategies,” and “Advertis-
ing Strategy”), in addition to choosing two other courses from a list of ten, including “Technology Marketing” and
“Digital Marketing Strategy.”
The main source of Kellogg’s strength in marketing is its faculty, known for producing cutting-edge research in the
field. In fact, in recent years, Kellogg marketing professors have appeared in the media on dozens of occasions, in-
cluding in the Wall Street Journal, the Huffington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg Businessweek, CNN Money,
the Economic Times, and the New York Times. Kellogg’s rise in prominence in this area is largely the result of the
on-campus presence of marketing guru Philip Kotler, who quite literally wrote the book (Marketing Management
[Prentice Hall, 13th Edition, 2008]) on marketing. Kotler’s work has attracted even more outstanding faculty to the
school and increased industry interest. Similarly, because of Kellogg’s reputation for excellence in marketing, the
school attracts top students in this field, and this in turn draws recruiters from the leading firms in this arena. One
noted marketing professor acknowledged to mbaMission that Kellogg offers the best combination of established
leaders in the field (Kotler) and innovative, young researchers, such as Angela Lee, who was formerly chair of the
marketing department.
Attracting more than 600 students, alumni, and marketing professionals, the annual conference of the school’s
Marketing Club is a marketing extravaganza. The 2015 conference, themed “Marketing Outliers: Growing Outside
the Comfort Zone,” offered keynote speeches by the founder and chief creative officer of Barton F. Graf 9000 and
by the U.S. vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch. Among the six panel discussions from which attendees
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could choose were “The Relevance Lifecycle: Finding and Maintaining Relevance in a Changing World,” “Safety in
Numbers: How Crowdsourcing Is Enabling Growth,” and “Calculated Risk: Leveraging Data and Analytics to Push
the Frontier.” For the first time ever, the conference featured a Creative Lab session, in which six student teams
of four members each worked to solve a marketing challenge presented by Google, while representatives from
Google served as session leaders and judges. The daylong event concluded with a networking reception.
The 2014 event explored the theme “Reimagine, Redefine, Reinvent: The New Marketing Playbook” and welcomed
the group vice president of strategy and insights for Razorfish, the CEO of the Cambridge Group, the chief market-
ing and brand officer of Chobani, and the vice president of global media and consumer engagement at Modelēz
International as keynote speakers. Panel topics included “Always-On Advertising: The Shift from Campaigns to
Real-Time Marketing,” “Global Growth: Maintaining a Brand’s Core Values While Expanding into New Markets,” and
“Unlocking the Value of Customer Relationship Management: The Importance of Understanding Your Consumer,”
and the event concluded with a networking session.
The word “extravaganza” can also be applied to the Super Bowl, which Kellogg students often watch more for
the commercials than the game play. In each of the past ten years, as part of the annual “Kellogg Super Bowl Ad
Review,” students have watched and evaluated the ads in accordance with the Kellogg ADPLAN: Attention, Distinc-
tion, Positioning, Linkage, Amplification, and Net Equity. The students then release grades for each advertiser, and
these evaluations tend to generate more and more press each year.
“This isn’t your typical dips ’n wings Super Bowl party,” explained clinical marketing professor Tim Calkins in a
2014 Bloomberg Businessweek article. “Students will sit at tables, armed with score sheets. They’ll be silent during
the commercials and only tune out, chat, and relax when the teams are playing.” Kellogg students chose Amazon’s
“Alexa Loses Her Voice” ad as the best in 2018, and also gave high marks to such companies as Tide, Mountain Dew,
Doritos, Avocados from Mexico, and Wendy’s. The “Cleaner of Your Dreams” campaign for Mr. Clean was ranked
the best in 2017, and Skittles, Ford, Audi, and Febreze were among the other highly rated brands. The Toyota Prius
campaign, “The Longest Chase,” was the winner in 2016, while ads for such brands as T-Mobile, Doritos, and Audi
also ranked highly. A McDonald’s commercial with the campaign, “Pay with Lovin’,” received the highest grade
during the 2015 review, followed closely by ads for Coca-Cola and Budweiser. The winner of the 2014 review was
an advertisement for Microsoft that featured an NFL player struggling with ALS; Cheerios, Heinz, Volkswagen, But-
terfinger, and Bud/Bud Light also earned high marks.
The Marketing Club’s own Super Bowl is the annual Kellogg Marketing Competition, wherein groups of four to five
students are given a product around which they must develop a marketing plan. The groups promote their product
the week before the competition and then sell it at a special Friday-night event. At this event, students are given
fake currency with which to make consumer purchases, thereby “voting” according to how they spend these funds.
The competition can sometimes be so intensely competitive that organizers regularly remind participants that the
school’s honor code applies and warn them against tampering with other teams’ promotions.
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A first-year student wrote about the competition on a Financial Times MBA blog in 2011, saying, “The [competition]
has to be seen to be believed. The quantity and quality of hard work and creativity on display is mind-boggling.
Real world goods are sold in an open market using complimentary coupons for all, and the team that sells its
wares the most and makes the maximum profit is declared the winner.” Standout teams from past years include
one that developed an advertising plan for Manwich Pouches and one that promoted M&M’s Snack Mix using
guerilla marketing tactics, such as dressing up in M&M costumes. Other past winners have promoted the Orville
Redenbacher Pop Up Bowl and Ziploc products.
The Marketing Club also organizes job shadow days, case competitions, Lunch & Learns, a mentorship program
(between first years and second years), a speaker series, and career treks. Specific events hosted by the club dur-
ing the 2017–2018 academic year included a Lunch and Learn with representatives from Mattel and Amazon, an
internship prep session with a Procter & Gamble brand manager, and an interview prep workshop with a repre-
sentative from Tyson Foods. Events in 2016–2017 included a “Managing the Consumer Journey in the Digital Age”
presentation by the vice president of strategy at Razorfish, a networking happy hour with representatives from
General Motors, and a case study based on The Dow Chemical Company featuring its global marketing manager.
Events during the 2015–2016 academic year included a presentation by Nielsen titled “Understanding and Marketing
to LGBT Consumers,” lunch with a marketing professor, a programmatic advertising tutorial, and a marketing in-
ternship event hosted by Procter & Gamble, while 2014–2015 events ranged from a case study with representatives
from S.C. Johnson & Son and an agile innovation discussion with individuals from General Mills Inc. to a Lunch &
Learn with experts from Dell Inc. and an interactive workshop series with professionals from Johnson & Johnson.
The club’s career treks are planned in conjunction with Kellogg’s Career Management Center, and in recent years,
four marketing and retail treks have been offered: two to San Francisco and two to New York City. Participating
students visit such West Coast firms as Clorox, ModCloth, the Gap, Visa, Method, and Levi Strauss & Co. The East
Coast companies students have visited on treks include Tiffany & Co., Unilever, PepsiCo, Diageo, LVMH (Louis Vuit-
ton Moët Hennessy), and Kraft Foods Inc. Via the club’s shadow days, students have access to representatives at
such Chicago-based firms as MillerCoors, Wrigley, Sara Lee, and ConAgra, visiting the companies for half-day tours
and presentations.
Kellogg’s marketing offerings are also bolstered by the school’s Retail & Luxury Goods (R&LG) Club, which pro-
vides educational and networking resources for students through seminars, workshops, career panels, and coffee
chats. In recent years, representatives from such companies as Lululemon, Brideside, Urban Outfitters, Sephora,
L’Oreal, Apple Retail, Target, Gucci Group, and Louis Vuitton have participated in R&LG-sponsored campus events.
The club also hosts annual career treks, which have in the past included a trip to San Francisco to visit companies
including Levi Strauss & Co., Gap Inc., Bare Escentuals, and ModCloth and to New York City to visit such companies
as Rent the Runway, Bloomingdale’s, Gilt Groupe, and Tiffany & Co.
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In 2015, the club hosted the second annual Retail and Luxury Goods Conference with the theme “The Shifting
Landscape of Customer Engagement in Retail and Luxury.” The senior managing director of Guggenheim Part-
ners LLC delivered the event’s keynote address, and panelists included representatives from such companies as
Nordstrom Inc. and Threadless. Two panel discussions focused on the topics of “Long Live Brick and Mortar” and
“Social Commerce,” and a networking reception concluded the conference.
The inaugural conference (in 2014) was themed “Transforming Retail: Innovating the Ways and Places to Reach.”
In addition to featuring a keynote address by the founder of Front Row Partners (also the former CEO of David
Yurman and Urban Outfitters), the daylong conference offered two complementary panel discussions on the top-
ics “Beyond the Box: Pioneering New Store Formats (Where)” and “Personalizing the Shopping Experience in the
World of Big Data (How).” The event closed with a networking session.
Of Kellogg’s 2017 graduates, 19.1% entered positions with a marketing/sales function (19.7% in 2016 and 20.0% in
2015); 13.4% in brand/product management; 3.5% in general marketing; 1.2% in sales; 0.6% in product develop-
ment; 0.2% in buyer/merchandising; and 0.2% in “other” marketing. Employers in this field included Amazon; Pep-
siCo, Inc.; Hershey Company; Target Corporation; and Apple Inc.
Nonprofit/Social Entrepreneurship
“Social Enterprise: Designing for Change,” “Values-Based Leadership,” “Leadership and Crisis Management,” and
“Advanced Board Governance” are just a few of the many courses available as part of the school’s Social Impact
pathway. The program was first launched experimentally as a Social Enterprise major in 2005 and has since be-
come popular among aspiring consultants, civil servants, social entrepreneurs, and those interested in nonprofit
management because of its depth of educational and experiential opportunities. A first-year student we inter-
viewed noted, “The social impact and nonprofit focused classes are actually popular, and people know about
them. At other schools I visited, they were an afterthought.”
Kellogg’s Social Impact Club bolsters the Social Enterprise program by sponsoring speakers, hosting conferences,
participating in case competitions both at Kellogg and across the country, helping with course planning, and iden-
tifying leads for summer and full-time jobs. Each year, the Social Impact Club hosts the Innovating Social Change
Conference, which is meant to “[bring] together leaders from the public, private and non-profit sectors to discuss
strategies by which all organizations can implement innovative social practices to transform their organizations
and the world,” states its website. While we were unable to confirm that the event took place in 2015, the 2014
event was held in October with the theme “Disrupting the Boundaries of Social Impact.” and concentrated on the
relationship between traditional and new, innovative strategies of social impact in business, The daylong confer-
ence featured the CEO of Malaria No More as the keynote speaker, while a panel discussion explored the topic of
“Collective Impact.” ‘K-Talks’—Kellogg’s version of TED Talks—focused on such issues as “Putting Markets to Work
for Global Good” and “Seducing America’s Menus, One Pledge at a Time!” The CEO of Mission Measurement deliv-
ered the conference’s closing remarks.
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The 2013 conference was themed “Harnessing Markets for Impact” and explored the concepts of “shared value and
collaborative impact.” Keynote addresses were presented by the president of World Bicycle Relief and the execu-
tive vice president of SRAM Corporation. A panel discussion on “Incorporating a Social Mission” involved speakers
from such companies as Accenture, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Ecolab. The half-day conference also offered a
series of social enterprise–focused talks delivered by representatives from Social Venture Partners Chicago, Mis-
sion Measurement, and Benetech.
Kellogg is working to produce leaders who are not only skilled enough to enter the nonprofit and social enterprise
fields but also financially able to do so. To this end, the school offers an up to $7,000 matching stipend for students
who take approved summer internships in social enterprise. In addition, Kellogg offers a Loan Assistance Program
designed to minimize the burden of student debt for those seeking careers in the field of social enterprise.
In addition, in 2011, the Carol and Larry Levy Social Entrepreneurship Lab announced the formation of the Kellogg
Social Entrepreneurship Award, which is designed to assist the recipient in launching a socially responsible busi-
ness. The award, worth $70,000, was first made available to students in Kellogg’s Class of 2012. Contenders for the
award compete in two rounds and pitch their ideas to a panel of judges made up of industry leaders and Kellogg
professors. The ideas submitted are evaluated based on criteria such as the social impact of the venture, lead-
ership commitment, innovative approach, and the sustainability of the venture. In a 2011 Kellogg News & Events
article, Kellogg’s director of social entrepreneurship noted, “Recipients of this prestigious award will be well po-
sitioned to make a meaningful impact in their communities, organizations, and the world.”
Another popular program (and acronym) in this area is KWEST (Kellogg Worldwide Experiences and Service Trips).
Students on these trips spend four days before matriculation engaging in community service activities across
North America and around the world. The program, which is open to incoming students and their spouses, is run
by second years and regarded by many as an excellent opportunity to give back and to bond with classmates. Ap-
proximately 1,000 members and spouses of each incoming class participate in KWEST trips each year, and among
the options offered in recent years are cycling through France, trekking in Switzerland, and cooking in Peru. Stu-
dents on KWEST adventures have traveled to such countries as Argentina, the Canary Islands, Iceland, Romania,
Turkey, Canada, Belize, Croatia, Costa Rica, Portugal, Thailand, Ecuador, Italy, Spain, Greece, and France.
In 2011, Kellogg joined forces with the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell Uni-
versity to launch a competition intended to assist MBA students in exploring the field of impact investing. The
Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge (formerly the International Impact Investing Challenge)
“seeks to identify outstanding proposals offering novel investment strategies to meet some of the most pressing
global challenges ahead,” explains the school’s website. Ten finalist teams are chosen each year, and $10,000 is
awarded to the first-place winner, while the runner-up team receives $5,000.
Kellogg’s director of social entrepreneurship said in a 2011 press release announcing J.P. Morgan’s sponsorship of
the challenge that the goal of the competition “is to fuel interest for impact investing as an investment strategy
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that’s attractive to mainstream investors, while underscoring environmental and social impact.” Kellogg’s team,
EduIndia, reached first place at the 2017 competition. EduIndia is a loan fund directed for building new private
schools in India. Kellogg’s 2016 team, AlphaBrick Capital, advanced to the finals with its innovation of using reus-
ing building materials from construction sites. In 2015, a team from Kellogg called Floating Green Capital, which
aims to convert distressed and abandoned properties into sites for hydroponic farming, was a competition final-
ist, while a team from Kellogg called Fresh Coast Capital took the $10,000 first-place prize at the 2014 event for
their plan to fund reforestation as a means of mitigating land contamination.
The school’s 2017 employment report indicates that just 0.4% of the graduating class entered the nonprofit field
(the figure was 0.2% in 2016 and 0.6% in 2015). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, REDF, and Calvert Founda-
tion are listed as having hired at least one Kellogg MBA in 2017.
Real Estate
Students pursuing the new Real Estate pathway can take two foundation classes (“Real Estate Finance and Invest-
ments” and “Finance I”) and then choose from the following dedicated real estate courses:
• “Applied Real Estate Finance and Investments”
• “International Real Estate”
• “Legal Issues in Real Estate”
• “Public Economics for Business Leaders: State and Local Policy”
• “Real Estate Development”
• “Real Estate Entrepreneurship”
• “Real Estate Lab”
• “Urban Economic Development and Real Estate Market Analysis”
In Kellogg’s lab tradition, “Real Estate Lab” gives students the opportunity to complete a project for a company
sponsor, with the aid of faculty and company mentorship—invaluable experience for those seeking to enter the
field.
In 2018, Kellogg hosted the fifth annual Kellogg Real Estate Venture Competition, which involved teams from top-
ranked business schools across the country. The competition’s consortium of judges includes representatives
from firms such as Federal Capital Partners and Blackstone Group, and three to five of these judges deliberate
each year between teams to award $100,000 in cash and prizes.
We should mention that Kellogg’s proximity to Chicago, a city replete with historic and iconic architectural land-
marks, gives many of the school’s real estate courses more profound meaning and also helps attract an impressive
roster of real estate entrepreneurs to participate in the school’s Executive Speaker Series and sit on the board of
the Guthrie Center for Real Estate Research. Speakers for the series in 2017–2018 included the president of Mar-
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cus Investments, the chief investment officer of The John Buck Company, and the founding principal of Farpoint.
Speakers in 2016–2017 included the chairman of Equity One and the managing principal of Walton Street Capital.
Speakers in 2015–2016 included the president of Related Midwest and a managing principal of Walton Street Capital.
Speakers in 2014–2015 included the CFO of Strategic Hotels and the COO of Northwood Investors. In earlier years,
the series hosted representatives from Equity Group Investments, Heitman, Peregrine Group LLC, Harrison Street
Real Estate Capital LLC, MacGregor Associates, ProLogis, Equity Residential, and Strategic Hotels. Meanwhile, Kel-
logg real estate alumni stay connected to the school and help graduates in the field network with one another.
The Real Estate Club’s Real Estate Conference, which since 2015 has been held in conjunction with the Real Estate
Venture Competition and regularly sells out, was established in 1995. The 2018 Real Estate Conference was themed
“Real Assets in a Digital World” and welcomed the president and CEO of First Industrial Realty Trust and the CEO of
Wrightwood Financial as the keynote speakers. Panels discussed the topics “Innovative Real Estate Technologies”
and “Capital Markets Updates.” A networking reception concluded the day’s events.
The 2017 Real Estate Conference took place in April and featured the CEO of General Growth Properties as the key-
note speaker. Panel discussions explored the topics “Creative Redevelopments” and “Capital Markets,” and the
event concluded with a networking reception. The 2015 Real Estate Conference took place in April and was themed
“CREating Innovative Solutions.” The event featured a managing partner of Levy Family Partners and Linda Dar-
ragh, who is the Larry Levy Executive Director and Clinical Professor at Kellogg. Two panels explored the topics
“Capital Markets” and “Adaptive Re-Use.” The event offered two networking opportunities.
The 2014 conference, which took place in November, was themed “Succeeding in the Innovation Economy” and
featured as its keynote speakers Sergio Rebelo, who is Kellogg’s Tokai Bank Chair in International Finance, and
the CEO of Eastdil Secured. Two panel discussions discussed “Capital Markets Update,” with representatives from
such companies as Ladder Capital, Goldman Sachs Inc., and Walton Street Capital, and “The Changing Use of Office
Space,” with representatives from Jones Lang LaSalle and Singerman Real Estate. The conference concluded with
a networking event.
Students interested in real estate at Kellogg can also consider subscribing to the Real Return newsletter, which
was established in May 2008 and is published annually. Real Return is written by the school’s faculty and students
and follows not just Chicago’s real estate market but also the world real estate market. (Subscribe to the newslet-
ter and RSS feed online at www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Departments/RealEstate/Newsletter.aspx.)
Of Kellogg’s 2017 graduates, 2.1% accepted positions in the real estate industry (compared with 2.7% in 2016 and
1.9% in 2015). Such companies as Hines; Allianz Real Estate of America; Greystar Real Estate Partners, LLC; and CIM
Group are listed as having recruited Kellogg MBAs in 2017.
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Notable Professors and Unsung Heroes
Gad Allon (www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/allon_gad.aspx): As the recipient of the 2009 L.G.
Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award and the Chairs’ Core Course Teaching Award in both 2008–
2009 and 2006–2007, Gad Allon, a professor of managerial economics and decision science, is reportedly a student
favorite at Kellogg. Allon teaches the core “Operations Management” course and is considered an authority on
service operations, maintaining a popular industry-focused blog called The Operations Room (http://operation-
sroom.wordpress.com). In 2011, Poets&Quants named Allon one of “The World’s 40 Best B-School Profs Under the
Age of 40”; student testimonies in the article include one in which he is described as “one of the most engaging,
insightful, and supportive professors I have ever had.” Another student offered an anecdote about how Allon woke
up in the middle of the night prior to an exam day to field any last-minute questions from students: “That really
tells you why this man is an outstanding professor who commands a lot of admiration at Kellogg.”
James Conley (www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/conley_james_gerard.aspx): As a testament to
James Conley’s expertise on the competitive advantages conferred by intellectual properties, the United States
Department of Commerce Trademark Public Advisory Committee to the Patent and Trademark Office appointed
him as an academic advisor in 2008. Conley is also a co-founder of Syndia Corporation, holds eight issued U.S.
patents, and contributes to the Kellogg Center for Research in Technology and Innovation. His research has won
acclaim from the American Foundry Society, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the Rapid Prototyping Jour-
nal and attracted sponsorship from the National Science Foundation, NASA, Motorola, and Daimler-Chrysler.
In addition to teaching at Kellogg, Conley is a faculty member at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineer-
ing. Northwestern has named Conley a Professor of the Year on five occasions, most recently in 2016. A first-year
student we interviewed identified Conley as one of her favorite professors, saying he “teaches a lot of intellectual
property-type classes, and because he is so passionate about the subject matter, it makes class that much more
engaging.”
Julie Hennessy (www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/hennessy_julie.aspx): Before students even be-
gan describing to us at mbaMission the quality of their educational experiences with Julie Hennessy, they noted
that she “cares a lot” and “makes herself available to chat and talk about recruiting.” In addition to teaching MBA
students, Hennessy teaches executive education at leading firms, and students told mbaMission that she draws
on these experiences in class but does not just tell stories. Instead, Hennessy challenges students and teases out
responses that facilitate learning. Students we interviewed also referred to her as “funny and energetic.” A first
year with whom we spoke said of Hennessy, “She will say that she’s good at teaching because she loves it, and that’s
completely true. You can tell it’s her passion because of the energy and excitement she brings to the classroom.”
Not surprisingly, then, Hennessy has been a finalist for the school’s L.G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of
the Year Award—which is voted on by Kellogg students—eight times, and won in 2017 and 2007. In addition, for
teaching the core “Marketing Management” course, she has won five Chair’s Core Course Teaching Awards, most
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recently in 2010–2011. Hennessy has received special student impact awards six times, including in 2017. The
school’s website notes that Hennessy focuses her writing efforts on producing new cases for class discussion;
she recently completed cases on TiVo, Apple’s iPod, Invisalign Orthodontics, and (as separate cases) the antibi-
otics Biaxin and Zithromax.
Harry M. Kraemer (www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/kraemer_harry_m.aspx): A winner of Kellogg’s
L.G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award (2008), Harry Kraemer is an alumnus of the school (MBA
’79) and was CEO and president of Baxter International (a multi-billion dollar health care firm) before becoming an
adjunct professor—and later a Clinical Professor of Strategy—at Kellogg. Kraemer remains active in the business
community as an executive partner at Madison Dearborn, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Students we inter-
viewed described how Kraemer fuses theory and practice, bringing CEOs from some of the biggest companies in the
United States to his class. Outsiders need not worry that such a successful individual would be out of touch with the
common student, however—Kraemer is known for offering students one-on-one career guidance, even those who
are not enrolled in his class. In addition to teaching, Kraemer serves on the Dean’s Global Advisory Board.
Florian Zettelmeyer (www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/zettelmeyer_florian.aspx): Having joined
the Kellogg faculty in 2008 after serving as chair of the marketing group at UC Berkeley Haas, Florian Zettelmeyer
has earned considerable acclaim in the span of just a few years. In addition to winning Kellogg’s Sidney J. Levy
Teaching Award in both 2008–2009 and 2010–2011 and the Certificate for Teaching Impact Award in 2015 and 2017,
Zettelmeyer was voted the L.G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year by the MBA student body in 2011
and has received Kellogg’s Impact Award for Teaching Excellence three times (2010, 2011, and 2014). Zettelmeyer’s
research focuses on how information technology affects firm and market behavior. However, we learned that
Zettelmeyer, who also directs the Program on Data Analytics at Kellogg and serves as chair of the school’s market-
ing department, is best known for his commitment to his students, offering tutoring sessions outside of class time
and making recordings of his lectures available online. One second year remarked in a 2011 post on his personal
blog, “I don’t think I’ve had another professor that went so far out of their way to help students understand the
course content.”
Social/Community Life
Formal Balls: Kellogg students certainly have no shortage of events on their social calendars. A series of student-
run formal balls peppers the first-year calendar, starting with the First- and Second-Year’s Social and continuing
with the Fall Ball, the Charity Auction Ball, and Casino Ball. When mbaMission interviewed students about their
social calendar, many had trouble placing the names and themes of the different balls, as they had been to all of
them, and the events had seemingly fused into a single memory. In short, once the school year begins, the aver-
age Kellogg student can expect to wear a tuxedo or ball gown more frequently than he/she might typically be
accustomed to.
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Kellogg Worldwide Experiences and Service Trips (KWEST): Before orientation, nearly 1,000 of Kellogg’s incom-
ing students and their significant others gather for the four-day KWEST experience, during which they engage in
volunteerism and tourist activities alongside the veritable strangers who will soon become their friends. KWEST
experiences occur throughout the United States and internationally; in 2015, trips and activities were organized to
more than 40 locations around the world, including Peru, where the first-ever KWEST Top Chef competition took
place; Switzerland, where participants were able to hike on mountains; and France, where they explored the coun-
try on bicycles. In 2014, trips included beer tasting in Germany, zip-lining and surfing in Nicaragua, and meeting
with a U.S. Ambassador on a Denmark/Austria trip. Some students even participate in a mystery trip: they do not
learn their destination until they check in at the airport! During KWEST, students are not expected to discuss their
work experience or academic/professional plans. Instead, students get to know each other on a more personal
and intellectual level, returning to campus well acquainted and, ideally, even bonded.
Ski Trip: True to Kellogg’s reputation for fostering a robust community, the school’s annual ski trip is typically at-
tended by a remarkable 800 or more first- and second-year students. According to a second year we interviewed,
“Kellogg’s ski trip was the first and remains the biggest of its kind. Like everything else at Kellogg, the trip is stu-
dent run … from logistics to marketing to sponsorship. … First- and second-year students work together to make
it an unforgettable weeklong adventure.” In 2018, participating students traveled to Aspen and Snowmass Village,
Colorado; in 2017, Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Whistler, Canada; in 2015, Park City, Utah; and in 2014, to Copper
Mountain, Colorado. Students who wish to ski can avail themselves of three-, four-, or even five-day passes, while
nonskiers can enjoy activities such as cooking classes, trivia nights, and pottery painting. The evenings feature
theme parties, such as an annual ’80s party.
“The entire event is a phenomenon,” continued the second year. “It’s a great break for everyone … first years blow
off steam from their hectic initial quarter, while second years immerse themselves in their final ski trip.” Noting
that all the spaces for the trip one year were claimed in just 20 minutes, a second year provided the following
advice in a personal blog post: “You have to know you want to go and sign up early before the trip sells out, which
happens every year.” A first year expressed to us how impressed she was with Kellogg’s ski club for “planning the
best week of business school for 800 people!” She added that Ski Trip is simply not to be missed: “It’s all of your
closest friends, taking over a ski town for one full week with amazing parties and social activities (many of which
are sponsored)!”
Special K!: In its 39th year in 2018, Special K! is Kellogg’s student variety skit show and offers a “different but
always satirical view of life at Kellogg,” explains the show’s site. The production has featured such themes as “Kel-
leidoscope: A Year of Infinite Possibilities” (2017), “Kellogg Ever After” (2016), “Special Khaos!” (2015), “The Book
of Kellogg” (2013), “Avenue K! The Revue Where Kellogg Comes to Play” (2008), and “RENTs: The Story of B Minus
C” (2006). With more than 100 students working behind the scenes to imagine and present the skits, Special K!
reportedly attracts as many as 1,500 enthusiastic attendees.
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TG: TG is an abbreviation of the longer abbreviation TGIF (aka “Thank God It’s Friday”) and is the name of a popular
weekly social event, hosted by various student clubs throughout the year. Held in the school’s atrium, TG is an
opportunity for students to wind down the week with beers and appetizers and to interact with professors and
members of Kellogg administration in an informal atmosphere. The event attracts primarily first-year students,
but second years are known to occasionally make an appearance as well.
Academic Summary
Curriculum: Kellogg’s core curriculum consists of nine first-year courses, as follows:
• “Accounting for Decision Making”
• “Business Analytics I”
• “Business Analytics II”
• “Business Strategy”
• “Finance I”
• “Leadership in Organizations”
• “Marketing Management”
• “Microeconomic Analysis”
• “Operations Management”
Students must also take the half-credit required course “Leadership and Crisis Management” in the pre-term of
their second year. Courses within the core curriculum can be waived with proof that the courses are redundant. To
graduate, students must complete 20.5 credits.
Grading Policy: Students typically receive grades of A or B, with C grades awarded infrequently. Kellogg allows
students to disclose their grades to recruiters.
Majors: Students have the option of pursuing a major in one or none of the following areas:
• Accounting
• Economics
• Finance
• Managing Organizations
• Marketing
• Operations
• Strategy
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Students can also choose as many as they would like from a list of optional pathways:
• Data Analytics
• Entrepreneurship
• Growth and Scaling
• Health Enterprise Management
• Real Estate
• Social Impact
• Venture Capital and Private Equity
Research Centers and Initiatives:
• Accounting Research Center
• Center for Executive Women
• Center for Family Enterprises
• Center for Game Theory and Economic Behavior
• Center for Global Marketing Practice
• Center for Market Leadership
• Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science
• Center for Nonprofit Management
• Center for Research in Technology and Innovation
• Dispute Resolution Research Center
• Ford Motor Company Center for Global Citizenship
• General Motors Research Center for Strategy in Management
• Guthrie Center for Real Estate Research
• Health Enterprise Management
• Heizer Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital
• Kellogg Team and Group Research Center
• Larry and Carol Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice
Affiliated Northwestern University Centers:
• Institute for Policy Research
• Global Health Initiative
• Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth
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Admissions Basics
Note: Any specifics discussed in this section related to application requirements were valid for the 2017–2018 admis-
sions season (unless otherwise noted). Be aware that requirements for any subsequent admissions cycles may differ.
Always check with the school directly to confirm all application details.
GMAT: Kellogg accepts each candidate’s highest GMAT score, no matter how many times he/she has retaken the
exam. If a candidate is unhappy with his/her score, that applicant should feel free to retake the test and not fear
any resulting “penalties.”
TOEFL: The TOEFL is only one element Kellogg examines when assessing an applicant’s English language communi-
cation skills. The school also considers the quality of a candidate’s interview and essays. Kellogg has no minimum
score requirement for the TOEFL.
Extracurricular Activities: Community and extracurricular activities are just some of the many criteria the admis-
sions committee uses to evaluate candidates, and no special emphasis is placed on this aspect of a candidate’s
profile. Including information about such activities helps the admissions committee understand more about the
candidate’s interests.
Round 3: Round 3 is Kellogg’s final round of application acceptance and is a much smaller round than the others,
but spots are still available in the class at this point. Excellent candidates should not be hesitant to apply in Round
3. Those who are ultimately declined admission are encouraged to reevaluate their candidacy and to consider re-
applying the following year if they can show growth. International students, however, should consider applying in
Rounds 1 or 2 so that they have adequate time to allow for the processing of their visas.
Application Review: Applicants’ files are reviewed in a completely random manner, and more than one reader will
review each application. An application will first be reviewed by a student interviewer and will then be evaluated
by an admissions officer and finally by the director of admissions, who reads every application. Kellogg has no
bias toward candidates from marketing or any other background, choosing to view applicants holistically and to
strive for diversity within each class. The school emphasizes that candidates should simply be themselves in their
application materials and interview.
Applying with a Spouse: Candidates can elect to tell the admissions committee whether they are applying to
Kellogg at the same time as their spouse. If so, they should do so in the additional information section of the ap-
plication. Each spouse’s application is reviewed separately, and admission decisions are based on the individual
strengths of each applicant. The admissions committee makes an effort to release partners’ decisions together
but cannot guarantee that this will always be possible. Decisions are final, and one partner may not appeal on the
other partner’s behalf.
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Interviews: Using student interviewers, alumni interviewers, and admissions committee members, the Kellogg
Admissions Office requires all applicants to request an interview and stipulate a location preference. Applicants
need not fret that an interview not conducted with a member of the admissions committee is somehow “not as
good.” All interviews carry the same weight in the evaluation process. If the school waives the interview for a
candidate, that applicant should not feel that he/she is looked upon negatively by the admissions committee or
is disadvantaged in any way—interview waivers are issued because the demand for interviews exceeds the supply
of interviewers in certain locations. In fact, waivers are granted before applications are reviewed, so the quality
of a person’s application is not the issue. Many applicants are accepted after having had their interview waived.
Applicants can interview on campus with second-year students or members of the admissions committee. Even
though interviews are “blind” (meaning that the interviewer will not have read the candidate’s application in ad-
vance of the meeting), applicants are expected to know their stories well and are encouraged to review their re-
sume and essays before the interview. Further, candidates are expected to understand the school’s offerings and
be able to explain how a Kellogg MBA (specifically) will help them meet their professional needs and goals. In an
interview with mbaMission, a recently admitted student noted that his 45-minute interview was “fairly standard
fare for an MBA admissions interview” but that it “probed a bit deeper into my past experiences, and why I wanted
an MBA in general.”
Absolutely no correlation exists between the date of a candidate’s interview and the date of an admissions deci-
sion for that candidate. Candidates should expect to be notified of admissions decisions on the admissions deci-
sion deadline dates. A member of the admissions committee may call with decision information as the date nears,
but applicants should not expect a call and should regard such communication as a bonus. Applicants who commit
to an on-campus interview cannot later opt for an off-campus interview instead, and vice versa. Applicants are
expected to dress professionally for the interview—unless they are meeting with an alumni interviewer who spe-
cifically instructs them to dress differently—and to bring with them a copy of their resume. Interview requests are
generally processed within six to eight weeks of being received. Candidates are expected to complete their alumni
interviews within 30 days of being paired with an alumnus/alumna.
Class Visits: Applicants are encouraged to visit a class at Kellogg, ideally during the traditional academic year (i.e.,
when classes are in session).
Waitlist: The Kellogg waitlist is unranked. The Admissions Office encourages waitlisted applicants to communicate
regularly with the committee and, especially, to use these communications to highlight any new or changed data
with regard to their candidacy, such as higher GMAT scores, completed courses, or professional advancement.
Students should not expect to receive waitlist feedback, though they occasionally may be offered some.
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Northwestern University (Kellogg) Essay Analysis, 2017–2018
The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University has made minimal changes to its application essay
prompts this year. The school’s required first essay has maintained its focus on leadership, but gone is the refer-
ence to teamwork, replaced by a request for evidence of “lasting value.” Kellogg also no longer stipulates that
the incident candidates share be “recent,” thereby allowing applicants to plumb the full range of their history as
needed to identify the most compelling or appropriate story. As for the video essays, we note that Kellogg is not
stating this season that one of the questions will definitely be about a challenge, though we take this to mean
merely that some applicants may receive such a question while others may not. The bottom line with Kellogg’s
video questions is that they have no wrong answers and are intended to help the admissions committee get a
more authentic impression of your personality (not to intimidate you!), so we hope applicants are not too con-
cerned by that part of the application. In our analysis, we present our thoughts on how to address all the school’s
prompts for 2017–2018.
Required Essay 1: Kellogg’s purpose is to educate, equip & inspire brave leaders who create lasting value. Tell
us about a time you have demonstrated leadership and created lasting value. What challenges did you face, and
what did you learn? (450 words)
In reality, this is a fairly straightforward essay prompt, and we recommend responding in an equally straightfor-
ward manner. Launch directly into the story of your leadership experience and detail the specific actions you took
in directing others to achieve some kind of enduring result. The key here is to show you shared a valuable experi-
ence with colleagues, extracted the most from your team members, and attained a desired outcome. Although we
often note that not all great leadership stories necessarily have to end in success, Kellogg’s request for evidence
of “lasting value” certainly implies that the school wants to hear about a situation that had a positive, if not vic-
torious, outcome. You will need to convey not only your role in spearheading a group to achieve what you did but
also how that achievement persists to this day.
Note that Kellogg does not specify that the experience you share must be related to your workplace or career.
Leadership does not need to have an official title attached to it, and it can be expressed in a community service
or even family life setting just as much as in a workplace, so explore all the different areas of your life for pos-
sible stories. We recommend using a narrative approach to presenting your story, but be sure to also share the
thought process and motivation(s) behind your actions. This way, the admissions committee will take away both
a clear picture of what you accomplished and the aspects of your character that inspired you and helped enable
your success.
That said, the school acknowledges within the prompt that even endeavors that have a positive result are rarely
smooth sailing from beginning to end—hence the question about challenges faced. A mistake applicants often
make in writing this kind of essay is presenting a strong narrative in which they are incredible leaders, and then
near the end, making a brief (and typically disjointed) reference to a hardship or conflict encountered along the
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way, meant to fulfill the “challenges” element of the essay query. To be effective and believable, your ups and
downs must be woven intrinsically into your narrative, rather than simply acknowledged at the end. Clearly ex-
plaining how you approached and prevailed over the challenge at hand is crucial, so go beyond simply describing
the roadblock itself and ensure that you detail your response and the inner workings of your decision making at
that point.
Lastly, do not forget or neglect to explain what you learned from the experience—Kellogg specifically asks you to
do so! And keep in mind that for your takeaways to be “meaningful,” they have to be profoundly connected to your
narrative. The admissions reader should be able to easily understand the connection between the situation you
describe and your subsequent learnings.
Required Essay 2: Pursuing an MBA is a catalyst for personal and professional growth. How have you grown in the
past? How do you intend to grow at Kellogg? (450 words)
How have you grown in the past? The best way to answer this question is to really take the question at face value
and think about… how you have grown in the past! Kellogg has no preconceived notions of what applicants should
offer in response to this query; it simply wants to learn more about who you are now and how you came to be this
person. Rather than pandering to what you think Kellogg wants to hear or trying to conceive of a storyline that
seems like it would sound good, truly reflect on your growth to date and focus on analyzing one or two recent ex-
periences that effectively reveal how you have developed and matured.
You might use the first 200–250 words of your essay to share a brief anecdote or two illustrating your growth.
These stories can be thematically connected, or they can present two separate circumstances in which you grew
in different ways. This portion of your essay will show that you possess the capacity to grow, so in the rest of your
submission, you can outline your agenda for growth at Kellogg. You can focus on academic and/or professional
needs or on broader personal needs (such as intellectual growth or global exposure)—either option is fine. What
is important is that you clearly show a genuine understanding of how Kellogg is the right catalyst for your antici-
pated development. If your connection to the school is merely superficial—based just on rankings or reputation,
for example—you will reveal only that you do not truly grasp the potential inherent in your time in the program. So
do your research and really learn about Kellogg in depth, and then present clear links between the program and
your developmental needs, going beyond a simple listing of courses or resources and illustrating a more thorough
and personalized connection between the offerings and your specific needs and interests.
This question involves many of the elements of a traditional personal statement essay, and because personal
statements are generally similar from one application to the next, we have produced the mbaMission Personal
Statement Guide (https://shop.mbamission.com/products/personal-statement-guide), which helps applicants
write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to down-
load your copy today.
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Certain applicants will respond to additional questions:
Dual-degree applicants: For applicants to the MMM or JD-MBA dual degree programs, please explain why that
program is right for you. (250 words)
If you are applying to one of Kellogg’s dual degree programs, you should be ready to demonstrate a great deal
of intentionality. After all, you are committing to a specialized path that requires additional time and cost. With
a limit of just 250 words, you have no choice but to cut to the chase and specify how a dual degree is necessary
for you to achieve your particular desired outcomes. After presenting your goals, you will need to tie these goals
specifically to the Kellogg programs you are targeting and to their associated resources. This essay is essentially
another opportunity (after Essay 2) to explain your distinct need to attend Kellogg, only here, you can focus on
showcasing the non-MBA portion of your intended degree.
Re-applicants: Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? (250-
word limit)
Whether you have improved your academic record, received a promotion, begun a new and exciting project, in-
creased your community involvement, or taken on some sort of personal challenge, the key to success with this
essay is conveying a very deliberate path of achievement. Kellogg wants to know that you have been actively striv-
ing to improve yourself and your profile, and that you have seized opportunities during the previous year to do so,
because a Kellogg MBA is vital to you. The responses to this essay question will vary greatly from one candidate
to the next, because each person’s needs and experiences differ. We are more than happy to provide one-on-one
assistance with this highly personal essay to ensure that your efforts over the past year are presented in the best
light possible.
All applicants have the opportunity to provide explanations or clarification in Additional Information. If needed,
use this section to briefly describe any extenuating circumstances (e.g., unexplained gaps in work experience,
choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, etc.). (no word count)
However tempted you might be, this is not the place to paste in a strong essay you wrote for another school or
to offer a few anecdotes that you were unable to incorporate into any of your other essays. Instead, this is your
opportunity, if needed, to address any lingering questions that an admissions officer may have about your candi-
dacy, such as a poor grade or overall GPA, a low GMAT score, a gap in your work experience, etc. In our mbaMission
Optional Essays Guide (https://shop.mbamission.com/products/mbamission-optional-essays-guide), we offer
detailed advice on when and how to take advantage of the optional essay, along with multiple sample essays, to
help you mitigate any problem areas in your profile.
Required Video Essays: The Video Essay is one component of the application and provides you with an additional
opportunity to demonstrate what you will bring to our vibrant Kellogg community—in an interactive way. You will
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respond to several short video essay questions. The questions are designed to bring to life the person we have
learned about on paper.
After submitting a completed application, you will be able to access the video essay through your application
status page. One question will be a “get to know you” icebreaker type of question. The second question will be an
opportunity to describe your plans for the future and how Kellogg will help you on that journey. The other ques-
tions will be randomly generated questions that will be similar to interview questions.
There are practice questions you may complete as many times as you like to get comfortable with the format
and technology. The practice questions and experience will simulate the actual video essay experience, so this is
meant to be a useful tool to help you feel prepared.
We encourage you to practice so you are comfortable with the format once it is time to complete the official video
essay questions. There is not an opportunity to re-do the answer to the official video essay questions.
You will have 20 seconds to think about the question and up to one minute to give your response.
We estimate the video essays will take 20–25 minutes to complete—which includes time for set-up and answering
all the practice questions.
Start by taking a deep breath. We understand that these video essays can make you feel like you are being put on
the spot, but Kellogg is really not trying to scare you. The admissions committee simply wants a more dynamic
representation of your personality than a written essay can provide. You cannot answer any of the school’s video
questions incorrectly, so do not concern yourself with trying to give the “right” answer. Just respond to each query
honestly, as smoothly as you can (despite any nervousness you may be feeling), and be yourself so the school can
get a better sense of the unique individual you are. Thankfully, Kellogg provides some basic information about the
nature of several of the questions you will encounter in the application’s video segment, so you will not be going
in totally blind.
The “get to know you” question will be about a topic you know very well—you! Kellogg refers to this question as an
“icebreaker,” so imagine meeting someone for the first time at a party or other event. Similar questions to what
you might ask each other in the process of getting acquainted are what you can very likely expect from Kellogg.
Examples we can imagine are “What is your favorite book and why?,” “If you unexpectedly had 24 work-free hours,
how would you spend them?,” and (as Kellogg itself offers on its site) “If you could live anywhere in the world for
a year, where would it be and why?” Although we are going to assume that you already know yourself pretty well,
these types of queries sometimes require a moment or two of thought before a clear answer can be offered. So
take some time to imagine these sorts of questions (you can even Google “icebreaker questions” to find lists of
general examples) and practice delving into your personality in this way. Who knows, you might even learn some-
thing new about yourself in the process!
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Fortunately, Kellogg very kindly provides the school-specific question in advance: “What path are you interested
in pursuing, how will you get there, and why is this program right for you?” With respect to your interest in Kel-
logg, you need to truly understand why you are choosing this specific program for your MBA. By that, we do not
mean that you should create and memorize a laundry list of reasons. Instead, you must have a comprehensive
understanding of the resources the school offers and be able to clearly and concisely express which ones are of
particular importance and significance to you—and why. Then, when you are recording your video response, you
will need to convey this information in a way that is sincere and compelling. That will not happen if you are list-
ing facts you have simply committed to memory! Kellogg offers very clear advice on this: “We don’t want scripted
answers—we want to get to know you and learn something new. … When you record your answer speak authenti-
cally—we can tell if you are reading notes! And, no need to memorize an answer to the Kellogg question… it might
make you sound like a robot.” The research you do on the school for Essay 2 will of course be valuable here as well.
As we noted in our introduction, you cannot expect for sure that you will be asked to describe a challenge, but do
not dismiss this possibility altogether. Kellogg says that some of the questions posed will be “similar to interview
questions,” and queries about past challenges are most definitely common in MBA interviews! You may wish to
download a free copy of the mbaMission Interview Guide (https://shop.mbamission.com/products/mbamission-
interview-guide), which, in addition to advice on preparing for and mastering the interview process, includes
several pages of common interview questions that could be helpful in approaching your Kellogg video essays.
One minute is not very long, so run through several practice sessions—perhaps in front of a mirror—to get a sense
of how quickly those 60 seconds will pass when you are in front of the camera. Although you can prepare as much
as you want (the school even provides practice questions to help you do so), you get only one chance at the re-
cording. If you stumble while answering or ultimately are unhappy with your answer, unfortunately, you cannot do
anything about it. You will not be able to rerecord your responses or try again another time. This may make you
nervous, but we encourage you to view the situation a little differently. Kellogg wants to get to know the authentic
you through these video essays. If you fumble for words or lose your train of thought, just laugh or shrug and con-
tinue with your response. Accepting a mistake with a sense of humor and grace will give the admissions committee
a more positive and natural impression of your personality than rigid scripting and overpreparation ever could.
The Next Step—Mastering Your Kellogg Interview: Many MBA candidates find admissions interviews stressful and
intimidating, but mastering this important element of the application process is definitely possible—the key is
informed preparation. And, on your way to this high level of preparation, we offer our free Interview Primers to
spur you along! Download your free copy of the Northwestern Kellogg Interview Primer (http://shop.mbamission.
com/products/northwestern-kellogg-interview-primer) today.
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mbaMission’s Exclusive Interview with Melissa Rapp, Director of Admissions at Northwestern
University’s Kellogg School of Management
July 2018
mbaMission: Melissa, thanks so much for joining us today.
Melissa Rapp: My pleasure.
mbaMission: There’s so much excitement at Kellogg right now. Tell us about the Global Hub—seven years, a $350
million investment. How has it changed the Kellogg experience, and is it everything everyone expected?
MR: I think it’s everything everyone expected and then some. I can definitely speak for me personally. I was a
little skeptical that a new building could have such a big an influence and create so much positive energy, but
ever since we moved back into it last year [March 2017], it has really been an incredible place to work and learn.
Now that we’ve been in the building for a year, we’ve had a chance to hear from students how it has affected their
experience here, and what we’ve heard is overwhelmingly positive. The things they highlight are things like the
classroom setups being customizable. Whether it’s for an in-class lecture or a debate or a small group discussion,
the new classrooms support a variety of learning styles and give students a better opportunity to engage with
each other and to leverage technology.
The whole building was constructed with an eye toward how we use tech as an educational tool and how people
use tech in their everyday lives. So the classrooms are appropriately wired; you can always find a place to charge
and use your laptop or phone to take notes. The design was always intended to promote collaboration. And it’s
almost impossible to walk through the Global Hub and not see someone you know, because of the wide open
spaces and the way the walkways on the upper stories cut across Gies Plaza , the large collaborative plaza on the
main floor. You regularly run into your friends, your professors, so it’s a fun place just to hang out.
We’re seeing students come to the Global Hub not just for academics or because they have to but for the gym and
the marketplace, where we have food available all the time. They use the space to work in small groups because
the study rooms are so great, and because both the large and small areas were designed for collaboration. And a
lot of people just really appreciate the view. It’s inspiring to be able to look down the lake at the city and to see all
of Chicago that way. It’s just a very calming environment where you can find some quiet space, too. Some rooms
are set aside specifically for reflection and quiet, so you can remove yourself from all the technology and buzz of
the day and just sit peacefully and look out over the water. And that can give you a real sense of calm, which comes
in handy around finals time. It’s amazing.
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mbaMission: That sounds fantastic. Kellogg has another big change in the works. Dean Sally Blount is stepping
down at the end of the year. I’m not expecting you to announce any candidates today, but if you want to, you’re
certainly welcome to!
MR: I really wish I could, but ...
mbaMission: Can you tell us how the search is going? What would you say to someone who is applying to a school
that does not have a “CEO” in place?
MR: I think it’s important to remember that Sally is the dean until the end of August, and her presence is still really
strong around here. We don’t feel like we’re missing anyone in our top leadership position. She still influences
our work here on a day-to-day basis. And Kellogg is so much more than just one person. It’s a great time here
at Kellogg, and we continue to attract incredible, high-quality, diverse applicants. I’m excited for you to see the
class profile for our incoming Class of 2020. We have more women at Kellogg than ever before, and we’re going
to continue developing programming to help our women students with their personal and professional growth.
We also plan to continue innovating with our curriculum. We’ve introduced more than 100 courses in the past few
years! Everything Sally has put in motion will continue, and the momentum and energy she infused into Kellogg
are still very strong. Whatever the future holds as far as our next dean, I know Kellogg’s values and the Kellogg
experience will remain quintessentially Kellogg.
mbaMission: Great. Kellogg offers a variety of opportunities for would-be MBAs. For example, it is the only top U.S.
MBA program to offer a one-year option for candidates who already have significant managerial experience. But I
was thinking that a lot of people in traditional two-year programs also have really strong managerial experience,
both educationally and professionally. So what determines the difference, in your opinion? When you meet
applicants, do you ever think, “You’re kind of a one-year applicant” or “You’re kind of a two-year applicant”?
MR: Determining which program is right for you is a very personal decision. And you’re right that some two-year
students here at Kellogg would probably have been eligible for the one-year experience. And some one-year
students would probably have been fine in the two-year program. The standards for the programs are the same,
so we have the same quality of students in both. I think it usually comes down to career goals and expectations.
The one-year program is better suited to candidates who have clear career goals that are not too divergent from
whatever they’ve been doing.
The major difference between the one-year and the two-year program is the summer internship experience. That
internship experience is pivotal to students who want to make a big change in their careers. So if you’re looking
to pivot into an entirely new industry or function, we think that internship experience is going to be an important
part of your overall MBA experience. For students who have already established a career in a certain industry or
function and are just looking to accelerate that career—maybe move to a different company but stay in the same
lane—the one-year program is a great option. Because they’ve already established themselves in that industry
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or function, they can leverage that experience during their career search, versus having to rely on their internship
experience. So it does take somebody who understands that their career is on a certain path, and one they’d
like to continue on. It’s a great option for someone who fits the selection criteria—come to Kellogg, have a great
Kellogg experience, enjoy the student-centered culture, enjoy the benefits of the alumni network after graduating,
and do it all in one year.
mbaMission: I have a similar question about the MMM Program. You completely revamped the MMM program a few
years ago. Can you share with us how an applicant might be best positioned for that program?
MR: So, MMM is our dual-degree, full-time program that focuses on driving the innovation life cycle of products and
services. What’s great about the MMM Program is that it is a fully integrated curriculum that we have put together
in partnership with the McCormick School of Engineering. Those students, while they are getting the benefit of
that innovation curriculum taught by top professors, are fully Kellogg students. There isn’t any kind of separation
between them and our other Kellogg students. When we’re looking at our MMM applicants, the standards are very
similar to those for our other programs. A Kellogg student should be a Kellogg student first and foremost.
With that said, a strong applicant for MMM shows a strong focus on his or her goals and how the MMM program
can help achieve those goals. The program focuses on the intersection between business, technology, design, and
innovation and is rooted in empathy, so an interest in these areas is key. Finally, our team considers an applicant’s
potential for contribution to the smaller class of 66, where they will also take coursework from the Segal Design
Institute, which is the engineering part of the degree, in a cohort model.
mbaMission: Historically, Kellogg has been known for marketing, though consulting has been trouncing marketing
for some time in terms of placement, for at least a decade, I believe. Can you share an area where Kellogg has a
real strength but for which it may be lesser known?
MR: My opinion is that Kellogg’s strength does not come from one particular program. It is Kellogg’s long-standing
commitment to a core curriculum that really provides students with a broad base of knowledge, and that sets us
apart. I think it’s important for applicants who are considering Kellogg to understand that we want to prepare you
as a business leader, and we believe that a broad base of knowledge is critical to your ability to rise higher and
higher in organizations. It’s so important that you have a working knowledge across all business functions if you
want to be a CEO.
Once you have that solid base of knowledge, Kellogg allows you the flexibility to really tailor the program to
your needs and to go deep in one area. So if you’re interested in finance, you can definitely layer higher-level
finance electives onto your core curriculum to build up your strengths in that area. We also allow you to, if you’d
like, continue that broader approach to your academic base. So you can choose a major—majors are optional,
and our majors are grounded in our academic departments. They are Accounting, Economics, Finance, Managing
Organizations, Marketing, Operations, and Strategy. But we also recognize that some people’s interests don’t fall
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neatly into one of those areas. So the faculty designed what we refer to as “pathways.” These are guidelines—
roadmaps, if you will—for faculty-recommended courses in specific industries that will give you a holistic
understanding of that field. So “pathways” are things like data analytics, entrepreneurship, growth and scaling,
healthcare, real estate, social impact, and venture capital and private equity.
Really, no matter what your goals are, whether you want to focus in one particular area or think more broadly
about your education, Kellogg will allow you to do that. I’m always very hesitant to define Kellogg by one particular
program or one particular degree, because I think the beauty of Kellogg is that opportunity to develop your own
path after building a strong base of broad knowledge that will equip you to be a leader.
mbaMission: Sure. Thank you for that clarification. Let’s move toward some pure admissions questions now.
Kellogg’s average GMAT score is pushing ever higher. Is there any intentionality behind that, or is it just driven by
really motivated applicants who want to see their scores go up?
MR: We’ve been fortunate to have an outstanding pool of applicants the past few years. What we’ve seen is
that the applicant pool’s GMAT average has risen, so our class profile reflects the caliber of candidates who are
choosing to apply to the school. The GMAT gets quite a bit of attention, but it’s just one aspect of our holistic
approach to evaluating applicants. We never want candidates to stress too much over it or be intimidated by that
score. We do look at candidates from all angles, and while that score does continue to go up, we don’t want people
to think that’s a barrier to applying to Kellogg or to being a good candidate for our program.
mbaMission: Other programs seem to be actively pushing people to apply in Round 1 these days. Can you clarify
Kellogg’s stance on a Round 1 versus a Round 2 application?
MR: My stance has been and will continue to be that candidates should feel comfortable applying whenever they
are ready. I can appreciate that candidates, especially when applying to highly selective schools, look for any
strategy that might be beneficial to them. But the truth is, at Kellogg, we really do offer a similar number of
admissions in both of those rounds and a similar number of scholarships. So when I say I prefer students to apply
when they’re ready, I mean it. There is not a strategic advantage to one round over another.
mbaMission: That response is about as straightforward and matter-of-fact as we could ask for. Kellogg has its
unique video essay. Can you talk about its role in the admissions process?
MR: Absolutely! I’ve always been proud that we pioneered this technology after hearing from our CMC [Career
Management Center] that lots of companies were starting to use a digital platform to screen candidates, so it was
something our students were likely to see in their career search. We felt it would be a good way of introducing
the technology to our students while also recognizing the benefits in the evaluation process. Because we’re
so committed to getting to know each and every applicant as an individual, having the video essay has been a
delightful addition to the process that allows the admissions committee to virtually meet every candidate and to
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hear in their words why Kellogg interests them and why they want to pursue an MBA. I’m sure you can appreciate
that people can represent themselves differently in writing versus when speaking. To see their facial expressions
and to hear the emotion and interest in people’s voices has really added a third dimension to our evaluation
process and become an integral part of how we consider candidates.
mbaMission: It is interesting that you now have the video essay, but you also maintain an open interview policy.
Why interview all applicants if you have the video essay?
MR: It’s a different way of expressing yourself. The interview still plays a very important role and gets at some
different qualities than our video essay. We try to very carefully curate the things we ask for from candidates so
we can really get at the qualities we’re looking for in different ways. Having both the interview and the video essay
doesn’t feel redundant, especially since the folks evaluating applications can’t personally interview everyone. We
definitely use the interview reports supplied by our alumni from around the world and find great value in those
reports, but there’s something different about seeing someone’s face and hearing their voice. Even though the
video essay answers are short, they provide that third dimension of evaluation that the admissions committee
really enjoys seeing and hearing.
MR
The interview will continue to be an important part of our application process. We’re going to continue to strive to
interview all our candidates, because that’s important to us. It reflects our strong commitment to inclusion and
diversity and to making sure every person has a similar application experience. But the video essay, again, has
become an important part of our process, so we’ll continue to use it as well.
mbaMission: What can you tell us about class visits? Do you see them as an important indication of interest?
If a candidate lives a certain extreme distance away from the school, does not visiting campus become more
acceptable in the eyes of the admissions committee? Sometimes people wonder if they are expected to visit if they
live within a certain radius of campus.
MR: Our evaluation process doesn’t include anything directly tied to a campus visit, but I do think it’s an important
way for candidates to get a feel for the culture and the environment they’re going to study in for the next year or
two. Someone recently made the comparison that if you look at luxury cars—let’s say a BMW, a Mercedes, and a
Lexus—if you look at the stats, they are all high-performance luxury vehicles, and on paper, they look fairly similar.
But if you talk to some die-hard BMW drivers, they would never be caught dead in a Lexus, and vice versa. I think
that concept can be applied to the MBA, especially if you’re looking at top-tier schools.
The class profiles, the academics, the strong professors are similar. On paper, or on a website, they all look fairly
similar. But Kellogg people are Kellogg people. And Harvard people are Harvard people. And that’s okay! I think
it’s really about learning about the culture, getting the feel of the community, and there’s just no better way to
do that than to be on campus, talk to students, and talk to alumni. So I always encourage candidates to visit the
campuses of all the schools they are seriously considering. It’s a really important part of the overall experience.
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I don’t think many people buy a car without test driving it, and I don’t think many people should go to a school
they’ve never visited. And I understand that that’s complicated for international applicants. Obviously, we have a
lot of applicants that choose to visit, but for those who can’t, I think engaging with current students and alumni
via LinkedIn or email or over Skype is a good way of getting a feel for at least the people who make up Kellogg.
mbaMission: It’s funny that you use a car analogy. I always tell applicants, “If you bought a car, how many cars
would you test drive?” And they’ll say, “Three.” And I’ll say, “This is ten times more important and expensive.” And
then they kind of get it. So, what can you say about reapplicants to Kellogg? Can you give your reapplicants out
there a little hope?
MR: Absolutely, there is hope! Every year, we admit some reapplicants. Some folks just weren’t quite ready the
first time. Some just didn’t perform as well on one aspect of the application as they could have. It’s important
for reapplicants to understand that submitting the exact same materials will yield the exact same results. You’d
be surprised—sometimes, we get identical applications from people. That additional year of work experience and
opportunity should be reflected in the next application. Our platform lets us look at a candidate’s application
from the previous year alongside the new application. Seeing what kind of reflection happens after someone
wasn’t admitted, and seeing how they subsequently took advantage of opportunities at work, or opportunities to
study more for the GMAT, or to gain more leadership experience, all those things are important to show in your
new application. I often tell our reapplicants I meet that it isn’t so much that you worked another year, because
we’d expect you to work another year. It’s more “So what? What did you learn? How did you grow?” Being able to
express that in your reapplicant essay is a really important part of being a successful reapplicant.
mbaMission: Something you said earlier caught my attention, that Kellogg has added 100 new classes in the past
couple years. Can you point to a class that is a real favorite—maybe one that is a little bit innovative or different
in its approach, that students are really loving?
MR: There are several in the entrepreneurship space.
For example, two years ago, Kellogg introduced a San Francisco Winter Quarter program, allowing students the
opportunity to gain course credit while working within a high-growth startup, venture capital, or private equity
firm. Students spend three to four days per week at their internship while also taking three credits’ worth of
courses on topics including building strong teams and company culture, understanding the application of social
dynamics and network science to inform strategy, and navigating the world of venture investment. We will be
sending our third and largest cohort to the Bay Area this winter.
Other courses that stand out include “Entrepreneurial Selling,” in which students learn how to acquire and delight
customers by using selling skills in different contexts, and “New Venture Discovery,” in which students navigate
the earliest stages of starting a new venture by identifying a problem in the market that is worth solving.
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mbaMission: When I went to business school, there was a course I felt everyone should have taken but that no one
seemed to know about. They brought in 17 entrepreneurs who talked about how they had purchased a business for
less than $500,000. Just an amazing class. I had to wonder what classes at Kellogg might be like that! Do you have
anything else you would like to say about Kellogg or to your future applicants?
MR: I’m just so thrilled that our application is already live! We were able to launch it earlier than we ever have
before. We wanted candidates, especially in Round 1, to have plenty of time to thoughtfully craft their applications.
We’re thrilled to have it live now. I definitely encourage everyone to have a look at it and get started on it. Our
admissions team is happy to help with any questions. We’ve also started a director blog series, so if you want
to hear more of what I think about things, you can follow that [http://blogs.kellogg.northwestern.edu/inside/
category/admissions/]. It is such an exciting time here at Kellogg.
mbaMission: Fantastic! Thank you so much for joining us. I look forward to visiting soon and to seeing Kellogg’s
impressive growth continue.
MR: Thank you so much! It was a pleasure.
Insider Interview: First-Year Student, Northwestern Kellogg, Class of 2014
We spoke with a first-year student at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management just as she was
completing the initial year of the MBA program. With a major in finance and a certificate in international business
from the University of Notre Dame, she spent several years working in consulting before deciding to go to business
school, where she believes her focus will ultimately be on management strategy and social enterprise. At this point,
she hopes to find a post-MBA position in the education technology space, perhaps at a start-up or within a univer-
sity.
mbaMission: Thank you for speaking with me about your experience as a Kellogg student. What specifically at-
tracted you to the school in the first place?
Kellogg First Year: I think more than anything, overall, the culture. I think, you know, once you start looking aca-
demically, you’re definitely going to get a good academic value, so I was really looking for what felt right. But also
important to me was finding a community that supported the more social education focus that I knew I was coming
back to school for. And I found a lot of places, they had clubs that were either education industry focused or even
just community service groups, but when I asked students about them, nobody really knew anything about them.
But at Kellogg, people could automatically introduce me to—“Oh, this person is into education and wants to start
a charter school” or “Let me introduce you to this person that’s leading the Habitat for Humanity build next week.”
So it was much more inherent to the culture. Not that I wasn’t looking for that from a networking perspective,
but just more so to have a community of people that accepted wanting to do something with a business degree
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outside of the normal finance and consulting, CPG [consumer packaged goods], and kind of that understanding of
the broader use.
mbaMission: I see. So are you involved with any of the clubs or other activities like that?
KFY: I am. I think Kellogg is one of those schools—though I didn’t ask questions about clubs when I was looking at
schools—but I think I’m overwhelmed by the amount of student activity and involvement there is, just because I
feel like there’s 20 student activities every day, so it’s hard to not be involved. Personally, I try to [commit to] one
community service only club, one activity with the admissions office, working with the dean’s office, and then two
things purely for fun.
mbaMission: So how many clubs or activities would the average Kellogg student be involved in, do you think?
KFY: That’s a good question. I would say that everybody is actively involved in at least three, but you’ll find people
that are technically part of 20 clubs. But whether they’re actively involved? Probably not. I would say, on a mini-
mum, three, but it’s definitely not unusual to find people that are involved with ten.
mbaMission: Sure. If you could capture the Kellogg student experience in one word, what would that be? I realize
that’s sort of a daunting question.
KFY: Oh, I don’t even know where to go with that—one word…Teamwork.
It’s one of the guiding principles [at Kellogg], and I think that encompasses academically the philosophy of the
school, but also truly everything outside of school sort of has that teamwork mentality. I feel like no matter who’s
planning, whether it’s a dinner, a night out at a bar, or a big event for the school, everybody’s very inclusive, and
its more about bringing everybody else along and not being exclusive.
mbaMission: So would you say that teamwork’s been an important factor in your Kellogg experience?
KFY: Yes, definitely. And everything centers around that, both in school and out.
mbaMission: Right. Kellogg has a strong reputation for marketing, of course. Would you say that’s a fair charac-
terization?
KFY: Yes. I would say that it’s definitely where the majority of students go. It’s definitely where the best professors
are, and I think the most interesting classes, but I think—being someone that’s outside of that bubble—I don’t feel
like I go to a “marketing only” school. I definitely have more choices. I mean, those teachers are incredible, and I
love taking those classes, but I think it kind of masks all the other things that Kellogg is good at, too.
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mbaMission: So what are some of those other strengths that you think the school should be known for?
KFY: In terms of industries or jobs, I think social enterprise is something that doesn’t get enough spotlight, just
because it doesn’t get the spotlight in the business world. The health care program is really growing, and the sup-
port and the access to industry that they have right now, it’s pretty amazing. Of course, always consulting, and
honestly, I think with [Chicago] Booth so close-by, we get overshadowed in terms of finance, but I think there’s a
very big advantage for people to come to Kellogg, because it is a smaller group, yet all of the same banks recruit
here.
mbaMission: Sure. I imagine you know about Kellogg’s efforts to shrink its two-year MBA class size and increase
the size of its one-year program?
KFY: Yes.
mbaMission: How do you think that will affect the student experience? Are students generally aware of these
changes, and do they feel that this is a positive direction for the school?
KFY: I think everybody’s aware, and I think there’s—it’s kind of a tough question, because I think there is a little bit
of a misperception. I think the one-year program is a great option, especially as opposed to part-time. You’re just
able to get more of the student experience because you are there full-time. But I think they’re still very separate
from the two-year program, just in terms of socialization, if that makes sense. So I don’t think anybody thinks that
they’re missing out on anything. It’s just definitely a different experience that fits some better than others.
mbaMission: You mentioned teamwork earlier. Do you think the emphasis on teamwork translates to the one-year
program, or is there a sense that it’s different?
KFY: I think it still does, because for every class, you’re going to be in a different team, and it’s not that it’s the
same team or the same teamwork for two years. I almost think it adds more diversity and more of a learning ex-
perience into that teamwork element, because in that second year, you have, you know, a hundred more people
to form teams with and learn from. At least my experience so far has been that those people tend to be a little
bit closer to industry experience. They have much more specific goals, and at least at Kellogg right now, it seems
like more of an international population, too. So I think that’s a good diversity mix that’s being added in, and it’s
definitely, in terms of a business perspective for Kellogg, a very smart thing to do.
mbaMission: I see. Interesting.
KFY: But there’s definitely division, though. We just had a comedy show, our Kellogg comedy show, last week, and
jokes are always going to be about the differences between 1Ys [first years] and 2Ys [second years].
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mbaMission: Of course. Another change, not so recent, but the school hired Sally Blount as the dean in 2010. What
would you say students generally think of her vision for the school? Has she shaped Kellogg’s culture in any no-
ticeable way?
KFY: I think it’s noticeable every day. Between Dean Blount and Dean [Elizabeth] Ziegler, the [associate dean of
MBA programs and] dean of students, I think more than anything they have a very clear vision, but it’s more that
they’re getting things done quickly. The input that they get, they ask for from students. It’s a very quick turnaround
time, which is great, especially since we’re only there for one or two years, so you can see the change happening.
And I think it’s more so that it’s being very responsive to what the needs are, industry needs or what the market
will look like and how we need to best be prepared. So I can already feel the changes, maybe not so much with the
curriculum, but I think the biggest place that I’ve seen it is in terms of technology—they’re trying to incorporate
technology more and more into the classroom—and how involved students have been with that and the quick
turnaround and change that is happening.
mbaMission: Do students feel like they can express complaints or ideas to the administration pretty easily?
KFY: Yes. There are always forums. The deans all have lunches that you can sign up for or fireside chats or cock-
tails, and I don’t know how true it is, but they claim to all have an open-door policy. But also, something that I
was involved with that I thought was very cool is that there’s a Dean’s Consulting Alliance now. So we got credit
last quarter for basically being on a small consulting team, working on an issue or something that the leadership
wanted to look at. We presented it, and now we’re actually implementing what we suggested, because they wanted
us to just take ownership and have that contribution.
mbaMission: That’s great. Would you say students at Kellogg pay attention to the rankings? Are they considered
important?
KFY: I would say they’re important, but they’re not the most important thing. I think it is important for us to be in
the top five or somewhere near the top, but I wouldn’t say people obsess over that importance. I think it goes back
to the culture, though, because our network is going to be based more so on that culture and that common bond
of the experience more so than the number.
mbaMission: Sure. So in terms of the culture, what would you say is special about the culture at Kellogg?
KFY: I think the size is an advantage for the culture. It’s not too large, but yet, I like to describe the culture as ev-
erybody recognizes everybody else but you can still walk into a room and be meeting somebody new for the first
time. And people are very open to that. I would say the culture makes a difference because it’s more about the
experience and not just about the ranking and the academics. I think if you talk to anybody at Kellogg, they’ll say
that the value that we’re getting at Kellogg is more based on the holistic experience than just the academics, the
name, or the ranking.
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I mean, I don’t want to downplay that the academics aren’t just as grueling or as hard core. People are serious
about their academics, but they’re not going to be competitive about it.
mbaMission: Sure. What would you tell a prospective student are the best social or community events that happen
at Kellogg?
KFY: I think Ski Trip is the first thing that comes to mind, because it encompasses everything that Kellogg does
well. I think a lot of the cultural, diversity-type events—especially that incorporate the different country business
clubs. Just basically the general social big blockbusters.
mbaMission: Okay. Are there a lot of travel opportunities at Kellogg?
KFY: There are. And honestly that was one of the things that I really liked about Kellogg, too, because I think
there’s a good mix of opportunities for academic and class-related things for community service. Maybe it just
is the culture that everyone travels and everybody wants to explore, so just that mind-set. I guess people aren’t
limited by their fear of debt. I don’t know, people just want to explore, and everybody travels a lot.
mbaMission: Right. Do you have any favorite professors?
KFY: That’s tough, because I haven’t had a lot of choice yet. This is my first quarter outside of the core. I would say,
even though I did not have her for a full class, I would say Professor [Julie] Hennessy. She will say that she’s good
at teaching because she loves it, and that’s completely true. You can tell it’s her passion because of the energy
and excitement she brings to the classroom. She brings the industry expertise, and teaching is what she does full-
time. As of right now, I would say Professor [James] Conley teaches a lot of intellectual property–type classes, and
because he is so passionate about the subject matter, it makes class that much more engaging.
mbaMission: Were there specific courses in the core that you really liked?
KFY: Yeah. Even though I don’t consider myself part of the marketing bubble, so to speak, the core marketing class
was very eye-opening to me, just because it was taught in a very different way than [at] my undergrad institution.
And I think it clicked for the first time that it’s definitely an advantage of going to a school like Kellogg, where it is
such a strong suit. And I would say even just your basic strategy class, core-wise, because we do it with our sec-
tion, with a great baseline for everything to build on top of. To do it amongst a group of peers that you’re already
comfortable with, I think really kind of got everybody more comfortable with engagement and class discussion
and participation.
mbaMission: Sure. I really appreciate your taking the time for this interview.
KFY: Sure. Thank you, too.
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“What I Learned at … Kellogg”
mbaMission connected with Kellogg alumnus Chris Brusznicki, founder of Gameday Housing, the leader in the sports
vacation rental market. Chris discusses how guest speakers at Kellogg inspired him to consider different business
models and roll up his sleeves, how his classes helped him make important changes in his business mode, how one
class and one project in particular helped him see the big picture, and how important the Kellogg community was,
and still is, in shaping his business.
When I decided to leave the U.S. Army to go to the Kellogg School of Management in 2006, I decided to sell my
rental property, because I did not want to manage it from afar. I wanted to invest in real estate in Chicago or in
Evanston (where Kellogg is located), but everything was so expensive, as the bubble continued to inflate, so I
started to look “afar” anyway. I had gone to college at Notre Dame in nearby South Bend, Indiana, and a friend of
mine from college who was studying at Northwestern Law School was looking at property in a town we knew well.
We decided that we would buy a place in South Bend, hoping that we could rent it out on game days and make our
payments via the rent, as the price of the property appreciated. As it turns out, in only three game weekends, we
made enough money renting our place to cover our mortgage for the year and to also pay for our furnishings. It
was pretty clear to us that we were on to something, so we started to pay for more houses using our rental cash
flow. As we purchased more and more homes, we started to develop a centralized rental business, which would
ultimately evolve into GamedayHousing.com.
As we grew Gameday Housing, I was in a perfect place, through Kellogg, to live the experiences of other entrepre-
neurs and see other business models. There was a constant stream of entrepreneurs coming through, and it didn’t
really matter to me whether their business models were anything like ours or not—I just enjoyed listening to those
who built interesting companies that endured. I loved listening to the bootstrappers—the guys who had no financ-
ing and had unsexy ideas. Wayne Huizenga spoke at the school and told us about how when he was growing Waste
Management, he would pick up trash during the day and then get into a suit and sell his firm’s services at night. We
had Lunch & Learns with CEOs of all sorts of different companies—like a retailer who was trying to carry very few
items and had no checkout line, in order to cut down on rental costs and create a certain feel in the store. I went
to as many entrepreneurial events as I could and kept thinking, “How can I apply this?”
I graduated and took a job with Goldman Sachs, while keeping our rental business alive. As the financial crisis
came, I saw the lack of professional security and realized that with my rental business taking off, leaving Goldman
was fairly low risk. In 2009, Gameday became my everyday focus.
In 2007, while still a student at the Kellogg School of Management, I saw the real estate bubble coming, just as we
were building our own portfolio of rental houses at Gameday Housing. I began to question what the bursting of the
bubble would mean for us and figured that there might be a lot of empty units in South Bend, where we had our
homes. It occurred to me that we might be better off if we were not landlords renting our places, but were brokers
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renting others’ places on game days. We started to build a portfolio of rental homes that we did not own in 2008,
and every weekend of the season, we rented them out through a centralized booking system on our website.
This transition seemed easy in hindsight, but at Kellogg, I was taking strategy courses, particularly “Management
and Strategy” with Tom Hubbard, which helped me really contemplate the changes that we were making to our
model. My core marketing curriculum seemed to constantly challenge our emerging needs—such as, what rate
should our commission be for our brokerage? I remember taking a class on couponing, and soon after, we were
considering whether we should use a coupon to help bring new renters on board. In fact, Hershey’s came and did
a marketing Lunch & Learn, at which they discussed coupon theory and pricing, and it helped me feel certain of
my decisions. The whole thing was organic—it seems staged in hindsight, but when you are at business school run-
ning a business, it is inevitable that the choices you are facing will appear in one way or another in your studies.
I had the benefit of being able to learn and apply learning in real time during my (full-time) MBA, which made my
experience all the more meaningful.
One of my favorite classes at Kellogg was with Brian Uzzi: “Management and Organizations.” It was, in fact, the
first class I ever took as a Kellogg student and one all Kellogg students take during orientation (CIM) week. Brian’s
focus is on the power of networks and teams and how such ideas can be applied to creative businesses. In particu-
lar, Brian heralded the successes of IDEO, a design and innovation consulting firm with offices nearby in Evanston
in addition to around the country and world. The IDEO case resonated with me because I have always had both a
technical and creative bent. I had also learned a lot from just understanding IDEO’s approach to product develop-
ment: rapid feedback and diverse teams were the keys to success. For example, in the case we studied, the team
had to redesign a shopping cart, and in so doing, involved not just designers, but also customers at grocery stores,
cart collectors, designers, philosophers, manufacturers, and even the logistics companies that ship the carts to
the stores at which they’ll be used. This passion for thinking about the full life cycle of a product and all the stake
holders who touched it really blew my mind and both humbled and empowered me as a designer.
Just one quarter later, I was ecstatic to actually meet and work with IDEO designers as part of the design curricu-
lum of the MMM (Master in Management in Manufacturing) program—the design program was led by Don Norman,
who is one of the foremost thinkers in the design world and author of the seminal design book Emotional Design:
Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. We had a project for which we had to build a green prototype, and Don
and IDEO were available for that rapid feedback. The project was certainly fun and educational, but for me, be-
cause Gameday Housing was already moving, I took lessons from that prototyping to our website: “What are our
core features?” “How will a customer experience our site?” “What’s the minimum this website needs to do well to
make money?” We were able to launch a site with the minimal functionality needed to get things going and then
constantly solicited feedback from users—feedback that we were able to quickly apply to our website. Everyone I
went through that experience with—whether they were bankers or consultants or went into industry—had a base
level knowledge of what “right” looks like. For me, that was crucial.
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When people think Kellogg, they think “marketing,” and while the marketing program is great, people miss the
importance of the community—the social/networking aspect of the MBA was invaluable to my business, Game-
dayHousing.com, and its growth. At Kellogg, everyone lives a mile from school, so it is easy to be on campus all
the time—I treated my MBA experience like a job. I was there 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., every day of the week. This
immersion experience gave me a real comfort and made me feel at ease sharing ideas and asking questions—and
asking questions to the right people.
As I built Gameday, I was constantly getting feedback from professors and my fellow students. I would show peo-
ple my logo, would reach out to professors with questions constantly. I remember thinking, “If I was not a student,
my professors would be charging me $500 per hour—I need to soak up as much as possible while I am not on the
clock!” Even today, I have a great friend who is a JD/MBA from Northwestern, and we talk all the time. I send him
screen shots of our new website. We go back and forth about our pricing strategy. We have not seen each other
in two and a half years, but we talk all the time. This socialization with others and this shared experience still is
one of the most valuable and enduring impacts of my MBA. I have a way of thinking and testing that I did not have
before Kellogg.
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Appendix:
Kellogg Facts and Figures
Note: Facts and figures in this section are prone to change. Occasionally, conflicts may exist between the school’s
publications and its web pages. Applicants are urged to recheck facts and figures for the most up-to-date information.
Basics
Year Established: 1908
Location: Evanston, Illinois (12 miles north of downtown Chicago)
Dean: Sally Blount (stepping down at the end of the 2017–2018 academic year)
Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid: Kate Smith (2012)
Programs:
• Full-Time MBA, Two Year
• Full-Time MBA, One Year
• Evening and Weekend MBA
• Executive Education
• Executive MBA
• MS in Management Studies
• PhD
• Undergraduate Certificate Program
Joint Degrees:
• JD/MBA
• MMM/MBA
Class Profile (Class of 2019)
Class Size: 478
Average GMAT: 732
GMAT Range: 600–780
Average GPA: 3.6
Average Work Experience: 5.1
Work Experience Range: 3.5–7 (middle 80%)
Average Age: 28
U.S. Minority: 25%
Women: 42%
International Citizenship: 35%
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Employment Statistics (Class of 2017)
Average Base Salary, United States: $129,529
Median Base Salary, United States: $127,000
Average Base Salary, International: $106,604
Median Base Salary, International: $102,000
Graduates accepted positions in the following industries:
• Consulting: 32.9%
• Technology: 24.9%
Internet Services/E-Commerce: 10.7%
Software: 7.2%
Equipment/Hardware/Networking: 2.7%
General: 2.1%
Telecommunications Services: 1.6%
Multimedia Products and Services: 0.4%
Other: 0.2%
• Financial Services: 12.9%
Investment Banking/Brokerage: 5.9%
Private Equity: 3.3%
Diversified Financial Services: 1.9%
Hedge Funds: 0.6%
Venture Capital: 0.6%
Commercial Banking: 0.2%
General: 0.2%
Insurance: 0.2%
Investment Management: 0.2%
• Consumer Packaged Goods: 11.7%
Food and Beverage: 5.2%
Household/Personal: 4.5%
Apparel/Textiles: 1.2%
Electronics: 0.4%
Luxury Goods: 0.2%
Other: 0.2%
• Healthcare: 5.9%
Providers and Services: 2.1%
General: 1.2%
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Medical Devices: 0.8%
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers: 0.8%
Pharmaceutical Other: 0.6%
Other: 0.4%
• Manufacturing: 3.9%
Other: 1.5%
Automotive: 1.0%
General: 0.6%
Aerospace/Aviation/Defense: 0.2%
Chemicals: 0.2%
Heavy Equipment: 0.2%
Packaging: 0.2%
• Retail: 2.5%
• Real Estate: 2.1%
Commercial: 1.5%
General: 0.4%
Services: 0.2%
• Petroleum/Energy: 1.7%
• Other: 1.2%
Agribusiness: 0.4%
Economic Development/Microfinance: 0.2%
For-Profit Education: 0.4%
Sports and Sports Management: 0.2%
• Energy: 0.8%
Alternative Energy: 0.4%
General: 0.2%
Utility Services (Electric/Water/Etc.): 0.2%
• Nonprofit: 0.4%
• Government: 0.2%
• Hospitality: 0.2%
• Media/Entertainment: 0.2%
• Transportation and Logistics Services: 0.2%
Graduates accepted positions in the following functions:
• Consulting: 33.5%
• Marketing/Sales: 19.1%
Brand/Product Management: 13.4%
General: 3.5%
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Sales: 1.2%
Product Development: 0.6%
Buyer/Merchandising: 0.2%
Other: 0.2%
• Finance/Accounting: 14.4%
Investment Banking: 5.0%
Corporate Finance: 3.1%
Mergers and Acquisitions: 2.1%
Investment Management: 1.4%
General: 1.2%
Other: 0.8%
Analyst/Research: 0.2%
Private Client Services/Wealth Management: 0.2%
Restructure/Turnaround: 0.2%
Treasury: 0.2%
• Other: 10.3%
Business Development: 4.1%
General Real Estate: 2.1%
Corporate Development: 0.8%
Data Analytics: 0.6%
General Engineering: 0.2%
Health Care/Medical Professional: 0.4%
• General Management: 8.8%
General: 3.9%
Rotational/Development Program: 3.1%
Project Management: 1.2%
Other: 0.4%
Other Manufacturing: 0.2%
• Information Technology: 5.5%
General: 3.7%
E-Commerce/Internet/Website Management: 1.0%
Business Analysis and Design: 0.8%
• Strategic Planning: 5.3%
• Operations/Logistics: 2.7%
Operations/Production: 1.7%
Purchasing: 0.6%
Supply Chain/Logistics: 0.4%
• Human Resources: 0.4%
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Graduates accepted positions in the following locations:
• United States: 89.1%
West: 31.4%
San Francisco Metro: 17.4%
Seattle Metro: 9.0%
Los Angeles Metro: 2.3%
Other: 2.1%
San Diego Metro: 0.6%
Midwest: 30.2%
Chicago Metro: 24.6%
Other: 3.1%
Minneapolis Metro: 1.5%
Detroit Metro: 1.0%
Northeast: 17.7%
New York City Metro: 13.8%
Boston Metro: 3.3%
Other: 0.6%
Southwest: 4.8%
Dallas Metro: 2.8%
Houston Metro: 1.0%
Other: 1.0%
Mid-Atlantic: 2.5%
Washington, DC, Metro: 1.5%
Philadelphia Metro: 0.4%
Other: 0.6%
South: 2.5%
Other: 1.7%
Atlanta Metro: 0.4%
Miami Metro: 0.4%
• International: 10.9%
Asia: 5.6%
South America: 2.7%
Europe Free Trade Zone: 1.0%
Middle East and North Africa: 0.6%
Australia and Oceania: 0.4%
Africa: 0.2%
Central America and Caribbean: 0.2%
North America (Non-United States): 0.2%
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Major Employers (defined as hiring three or more graduates):
• McKinsey & Company: 40
• The Boston Consulting Group: 36
• Amazon: 32
• Bain & Company: 28
• Microsoft Corporation: 10
• Apple Inc.: 9
• L.E.K. Consulting: 8
• Strategy&: 8
• Accenture Strategy: 6
• Adobe Systems: 6
• Nike, Inc.: 6
• PepsiCo, Inc.: 6
• SC Johnson: 6
• Cisco Systems: 5
• DaVita: 5
• Intuit Inc.: 5
• Salesforce.com: 5
• Unilever Food Solutions: 5
• Anheuser-Busch InBev: 4
• Danaher Corporation: 4
• Deloitte Consulting LLP: 4
• Oliver Wyman: 4
• Procter & Gamble: 4
• American Express: 3
• Cambridge Group: 3
• The Clorox Company: 3
• Colgate-Palmolive Company: 3
• Cummins Inc.: 3
• Discover Financial Services: 3
• Evercore Partners: 3
• General Motors Company: 3
• Goldman, Sachs & Co.: 3
• Google Inc.: 3
• J.P. Morgan: 3
• Johnson & Johnson: 3
• The Kraft Heinz Company: 3
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• Morgan Stanley: 3
• Roland Berger: 3
• William Blair: 3
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Byrne, John A. “Double-Digit Increase in Kellogg Applications.” Poets&Quants. May 9, 2013.
http://poetsandquants.com/2013/05/09/double-digit-app-rises-at-kellogg/
Byrne, John A. “Kellogg Dean Sally Blount to Step Down.” Poets&Quants. September 7, 2017.
https://poetsandquants.com/2017/09/07/kellogg-dean-sally-blount-to-step-down/
Byrne, John A. “Kellogg School’s New Growth Mantra: The Transformation Behind Another New Tagline.”
Poets&Quants. September 15, 2014.
http://poetsandquants.com/2014/09/15/kellogg-the-transformation-behind-another-new-tagline/
Byrne, John A. “Wharton Dislodges Harvard to Top 2017 P&Q MBA Ranking.” Poets&Quants. November 27, 2017.
https://poetsandquants.com/2017/11/27/wharton-dislodges-harvard-from-top-of-pq-mba-ranking/3/
Calkins, Tim, and Derek D. Rucker. “Kellogg Profs: Why We Make Our MBAs Watch Super Bowl Ads (and Tune Out
the Game).” Bloomberg Businessweek. January 31, 2014. www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-31/
kellogg-profs-why-we-make-our-mbas-watch-super-bowl-ads-and-tune-out-the-game#r=hpt-fs
Carter, Andrea. “The Best 40 B-School Profs Under the Age of 40.” Poets&Quants. February 15, 2011.
http://poetsandquants.com/2011/02/15/the-worlds-best-40-b-school-profs-under-the-age-of-40/
“Chat Transcript, Kellogg Admissions.” Bloomberg Businessweek. March 19, 2009. www.businessweek.com/
bschools/content/mar2009/bs20090319_260969.htm
“Chat Transcript, Kellogg Admissions.” Bloomberg Businessweek. February 1, 2010. www.businessweek.com/
bschools/content/feb2010/bs2010021_683329.htm
Chugh, Shobhit. “More Amazing Things about Kellogg.” Personal Blog. September 27, 2009.
http://shobhitchugh.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-amazing-things-about-kellogg.html
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“The Complete 2014 Business School Ranking.” Bloomberg Businessweek. November 11, 2014.
www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-11/best-business-schools-2014-the-complete-rankings-table
Cubbage, Alan K. “New Site Selected for Kellogg Building.” Kellogg News & Events. November 12, 2010.
www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2010/New-Building-Site.aspx
Employment Report 2007. Evanston, Illinois: Kellogg School of Management, Career Management Center, 2007.
“Envision Kellogg.” Kellogg Magazine. Fall 2012. pp. 8–15. http://kellogg.northwestern.edu/kwo/fall12/pdf/
Kellogg-World-Fall2012.pdf
Full-Time MBA Program. Kellogg Full-Time MBA Brochure, 2013–2014. Evanston, Illinois: Kellogg School of
Management, 2013. http://kellogg.northwestern.edu/~/media/Files/FTMBA/2013/Kellogg-Full-Time-MBA-
Brochure-2013-2014.ashx
Geneser, Michael. “What’s Going on at Kellogg?” Office of Admissions Blog, Kellogg School of Management.
March, 29, 2011. www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Programs/FullTimeMBA/Applying/Admissions_Blog/
Meet_The_Team/Michael_Geneser/March%20blog.aspx
Gervais, Brady. “Scaling What Works: The 11th Annual Innovating Social Change Conference Focuses on Taking
Social Change to the Next Level.” Kellogg News & Events. October 13, 2010. www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/
News_Articles/2010/social-change.aspx
“Global MBA Rankings 2011.” Financial Times. January 31, 2011. http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/
global-mba-rankings-2011
global-mba-rankings-2012
global-mba-ranking-2013
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Gloeckler, Geoff. “Kellogg Gets A New Dean for Hard Times.” Bloomberg Businessweek. April 1, 2010.
www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/apr2010/bs2010041_079557.htm
“J.P. Morgan to Sponsor International Impact Investing Challenge.” J.P. Morgan press release. March 7, 2011.
www.jpmorgan.com/cm/cs?pagename=JPM_redesign/JPM_Content_C/Generic_Detail_Page_Template&cid=12
99443642063&c=JPM_Content_C
Kellogg Facts & Figures. Evanston, Illinois: Kellogg School of Management, 2008.
The Kellogg MBA: Creating Global Leaders in a Culture of Innovation and Collaboration. Evanston, Illinois: Kellogg
School of Management, Career Management Center, 2007.
Langen, Sara. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Car Seat.” Kellogg News & Events. June 24, 2010.
www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2010/kellogg_cup.aspx
Langen, Sara. “Investing in India: The 2011 India Business Conference Explores the Needs and Changes in the
Fast-Growing Nation.” Kellogg News & Events. February 9, 2011. www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/
News_Articles/2011/india-business.aspx
Lavelle, Louis. “Kellogg Overhaul Will Shrink MBA, Revise Curriculum.” Bloomberg Businessweek. February 6, 2012.
www.businessweek.com/bschools/blogs/mba_admissions/archives/2012/02/kellogg_overhaul_will_shrink_
mba_revise_curriculum.html
Lavelle, Louis. “Q&A: Kellogg’s Sally Blount.” Bloomberg Businessweek. May 16, 2013. www.businessweek.com/
articles/2013-05-16/q-and-a-kelloggs-sally-blount
Macsai, Dan. “The Admissions Interview: Your Questions.” Bloomberg Businessweek. October 23, 2008. www.
businessweek.com/bschools/content/oct2008/bs20081023_316382.htm?chan=
bschools_undergraduate+business+programs+--+new+design_admissions
“Northwestern University: Kellogg School of Management.” Bloomberg Businessweek. Full-Time MBA Program
Profile. Accessed May 12, 2014. www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/full_time_mba_profiles/kellogg.
html
O’Neill, Orlando. “Prof. Zettelmeyer = Professor of the Year.” My Kellogg Experience blog.
www.kelloggmbaclassof2011.com/2011/06/prof-zettelmeyer-professor-of-year.html
Pohle, Nathan. “Experiencing Shanghai, Beijing and Soul.” Kellogg Full-Time MBA Blog. April 16, 2015.
https://kelloggmbastudents.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/experiencing-shanghai-beijing-and-
seoul/#more-4186
Shah, Sheila. “2014 Kellogg Biotech & Healthcare Case Competition.” The Inside Perspective: Kellogg Full-Time
MBA blog. February 6, 2014. https://kelloggmbastudents.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/
2014-kellogg-biotech-healthcare-case-competition/
“Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs of 2010.” Poets&Quants. December 14, 2010. http://poetsandquants.com/2010/12/
14/poetsquants-top-100-mba-programs-in-the-u-s
“Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs of 2011.” Poets&Quants. December 8, 2011. http://poetsandquants.com/2011/12/08/
the-top-100-u-s-mba-programs-of-2011
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the-top-100-u-s-mba-programs-of-2012
poetsquants-top-100-u-s-mba-programs-of-2013
“Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs of 2014.” Poets&Quants. November 26, 2014. http://poetsandquants.com/2014/11/
26/poetsquants-2014-best-business-school-ranking
“Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs of 2015.” Poets&Quants. November 18, 2015. http://poetsandquants.com/2015/11/
18/harvard-business-school-tops-new-2015-poetsquants-mba-ranking
“Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs of 2016.” Poets&Quants. November 21, 2016 http://poetsandquants.com/2016/11/
21/2016-poetsquants-mba-ranking/
Trang, Amy. “Supporting Social Ventures.” Kellogg News & Events. January 7, 2011.
www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2011/social-ventures.aspx
Veit, Toby. “10th Annual Booth-Kellogg Real Estate Challenge.” Kellogg Real Return. July 12, 2011.
www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Departments/RealEstate/Newsletter/Article/booth-kellogg-re-challenge.
aspx
“Volkswagen Tops 2011 Kellogg School Super Bowl Advertising Review; Lipton Brisk Iced Tea Runs Cold.” Kellogg
News & Events. February 6, 2011. www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2011/super-bowl-ad-review-
results.aspx
“Which MBA? Global Full-Time MBA Ranking 2010.” The Economist. September 30, 2010. www.economist.com/
whichmba
“Which MBA? 2011 Full-Time MBA Ranking.” The Economist. October 13, 2011. www.economist.com/whichmba/
full-time-mba-ranking
full-time-mba-ranking
full-time-mba-ranking?term_node_tid_depth=All
full-time-mba-ranking?year=2014&term_node_tid_depth=All
full-time-mba-ranking?year=2015
Wilson, Jeremy C. “2010 Annual Kellogg Marketing Competition.” Jeremycwilson.com. November 15, 2010.
www.jeremycwilson.com/2010/11/2010-annual-kellogg-marketing-competition/
Wilson, Jeremy C. “Just Got Back from Kellogg Ski Trip 2011.” Jeremycwilson.com. December 18, 2011.
www.jeremycwilson.com/2011/12/reflecting-on-kellogg-ski-trip-2011/
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Wilson, Jeremy C. “Kellogg KWEST 2011–Come to Ecuador!” Jeremycwilson.com. May 3, 2011.
www.jeremycwilson.com/2011/05/kellogg-kwest-2011-come-to-kwest-ecuador/
Web Sites
CandidMarkets National Stock Return Competition: www.candidmarkets.com/contest2013
Chicago Microfinance Conference: www.chicagomicrofinance.com
InNUvation: http://entrepreneur.northwestern.edu/index.php/innuvation-homepage
Investment Management Club: http://kellogg.campusgroups.com/imc/about/
Kellogg Alumni Entrepreneur Annual Conference: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/conference/
entrepreneurconference/index.htm
Kellogg Finance Conference: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/financeconference/index.htm
Kellogg Greater China Business Conference: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/conference/chinesebusiness/about.
html
Kellogg Health Enterprise Management Club: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/student/club/hcc/about.html
Kellogg Innovating Social Change Conference: http://kellogg.campusgroups.com/isc/h/
Kellogg Latin American Business Conference 2011: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/LABConference/LABC/
LABC2011.html
Kellogg Marketing Competition Zip Rock: http://wn.com/kellogg_marketing_competition__zip_rock
Kellogg Marketing Conference: http://kellogg.campusgroups.com/mktgconf/about/
Kellogg Office of Admissions Blog: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Programs/FullTimeMBA/Applying/
Admissions_Blog.aspx
Kellogg Real Estate Conference 2010: http://events.linkedin.com/kellogg-real-estate-conference-453634
Kellogg Real Estate Conference 2011:
www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/realestateConference/
Kellogg Real Return: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/Departments/RealEstate/Newsletter.aspx
Kellogg School of Management: www.kellogg.northwestern.edu
Kellogg Worldwide Experiences and Service Trips: http://kellogg.campusgroups.com/kwest/home/
Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge: http://sustainableinvestingchallenge.org
Northwestern University Venture Challenge: http://nuisepic.com/nuventurechallenge/
Interviews and Other
Flye, Beth, Director of Admissions. Personal Interview. June 18, 2008.
Kellogg Admitted Student. Personal Interview. April 8, 2010.
Kellogg Alumnus. Personal Interview. July 7, 2008.
Kellogg Alumnus. Personal Interview. April 1, 2009.
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Kellogg First-Year Student. Personal Interview. April 13, 2009.
Kellogg First-Year Student. Personal Interview. January 16, 2012.
Kellogg First-Year Student. Personal Interview. May 7, 2013.
Kellogg Second-Year Student. Email exchange. April 9, 2013.
Kellogg Second-Year Student. Personal Interview. April 14, 2009.
Kellogg Second-Year Student. Personal Interview. January 4, 2012.
mbaMission Student Survey. Online via SurveyMonkey.com. December 5, 2013.
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35 Kellogg School of Management

83 Appendix: Kellogg Facts and Figures

specific characteristics (in no particular order) that shape MBA programs:

1. Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town

2. Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger

MbaMission Northwestern Kellogg Insider's Guide 2018-2019

MbaMission Northwestern Kellogg Insider's Guide 2018-2019